Conventional thinking holds that districts and schools face a strategic decision between two fundamentally different alternatives: make or buy? The former refers to planning, designing, and enacting school-specific improvement initiatives. The latter refers to contracting with external providers of schoolwide improvement programs. However, there…

Of the cadre of non-educators--business leaders, military men, government officials, lawyers--who have been called on to transform large urban school districts in recent years, Paul Vallas has been at it the longest and, in the minds of many, is the one with the best track record. Since 1995, he has tackled the third- and eighth-largest districts…

Principals manage schools, ensuring that nothing interrupts business as usual. They spend little time on instruction. A good principal is the one who works in a high-achieving school that has no significant management problems. Districts celebrate improved student results by recognizing an outstanding crop of students, rarely pointing to the…

School districts have attempted to integrate their efforts at school improvement with concepts and techniques of organization development. Some of them have approached the problem of continuous change with the help of an internal cadre of peers who offer organization development services to their school districts. The following school districts…

The model program described in this Title III project report was developed "to eliminate the need for segregated classes for handicapped children in remote school systems." The underlying assumption of the program is that, if the regular teacher is (1) supported by a staff of specially trained resource personnel whole roles are clearly…

Methods and curriculum used to train teachers at the Irvine (California) Unified School District in computer literacy are described. A cadre of teachers already familiar with computers conducted training for colleagues. (PP)

A program to improve classroom instruction through the use of Instructional Support Teams composed of principals and teachers is described. An overview of the program is presented followed by a more detailed description. The following information is provided: (1) background of the school district; (2) history of the district's staff development…

Edmonds School District (Washington) was a winner in the 1999 National Awards Programs for Model Professional Development. Teacher participation in district decisions, district funding for professional development at six times the national average, mentoring for new teachers, research into best practices for professional development, and teacher…

This paper describes the effects of applying research generalizations about inservice teacher education to the practices of a local school district. Generalizations considered include: (1) short- and long-range planning needs; (2) joint planning and participation by administrators and teachers; (3) relationships among inservice and curriculum…

Designed for equipping teams of local school district personnel, called cadre, to assume leadership of career education inservice teacher training at the secondary level, the project developed two products: a transportable package of instructional materials and a set of organizational procedures. Following a formative evaluation strategy, these…

Project PEP (Program Evaluation and Planning: Evaluating Current Programs and Identifying Handicapped Students and Their Vocational Needs for 1977-82) was designed to help handicapped students ages 14-21 make the transition from secondary to vocational, technical, and adult education school (VTAE) in Wisconsin. Information was gathered to identify…