Focuses on principals as change facilitators, on other staff members who facilitate school improvement ("second change facilitators" and on what these two groups do together and separately. Concludes with considerations for policy making, for training of all school improvement leadership personnel and for future lines of study into facilitating…

When compared with regular schools in the same district, fundamental school students performed as well as or better than regular school students; fundamental schools rated better on learning climate, discipline, and suspensions; and there were no differences in student self-concept. (Author/BW)

Outlines criteria needed in effective performance evaluation systems for principals. (MD)

An elementary school's dramatic gains in achievement test scores are attributed to four steps: realization that a problem existed; arrival at a consensus regarding the purpose of schooling; development of a plan of action; and implementation of six improvement strategies through teamwork, with principal, teacher, and parent playing clearly…

British comprehensive schools have been criticized by the left for failing to provide equality for everyone and by the right for sacrificing academic standards for equality. Such simultaneous criticisms suggest that the schools have been assigned either impossible or contradictory objectives, but have managed to achieve a reasonable compromise.…

Profiles of 100 top executive educators selected for their excellence in administering their schools by an independent panel of jurors. (MLF)

Recent studies by the University of Texas Research and Development Center for Teacher Education, based on visits to 22 high schools across the nation, suggest that high schools are better than they are usually portrayed as being. If current efforts to improve them are to succeed, however, clearer change strategies are needed. (JBM)

Knowledge and values for good citizenship are communicated through explicit subject-area curriculum, such as social studies, health, and language arts, and through the implicit models and practices embedded in a school's system of human rights protections and discipline practices. This paper presents the conceptual framework, and a few very early…

The educational effectiveness of community colleges is under new scrutiny as a result of both a federal government focus on accountability of higher education institutions and greater competition for the state funds traditionally directed to the colleges. Policymakers, who want to tie public college allocations to their outcomes, and families,…

This study was undertaken to identify the common characteristics of high-performing schools in Tennessee, to determine if these features were consistent with what other studies of high-performing schools have reported, and to consider whether any of the identified components had any potential for being employed to improve student achievement in…

Comprehensive school reform involves changes in every aspect of school operations, from classroom instruction to school governance. Some schools develop their own reform approach from within. Others seek assistance from without, particularly from organizations that have developed coherent, research-based approaches, or school-reform models. For…

Several previous studies have relied on religious affiliation and proximity to Catholic schools as exogenous sources of variation for identifying the effect of Catholic schooling on a wide variety of outcomes. Using three separate approaches, this study examined the validity of these instrumental variables. Evidence was obtained on the validity of…

This report reviews literature and presents evidence and findings from empirical studies and syntheses that encompass a wide range of contexts and topics relating to school effectiveness. The body of the report is arranged in seven sections. The introduction discusses the need for effective schools, and the concepts of effectiveness, efficiency,…

The perception exists that the massive infusion of resources into public education has done nothing to bolster student achievement scores and that American students' scores on international assessments rank far below the scores of students from other countries. These perceptions are examined in this booklet. The focus is on education productivity…

Seven schools each in five Florida school districts were examined after they had received a rating of F by the state's accountability plan. The ratings are based on Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test levels for reading, math, and writing as well as attendance-related data. Using criteria developed by the U.S. Department of Education's…