Limited financial resources of colleges and universities make it more important than ever to develop a coordinated, institution-wide process to link academic priorities and expenditures with the technological infrastructure necessary to support objectives. Trade-offs must be made across the institution rather than simply within the traditional…

Explores Chicanos' educational conditions and related outcomes from elementary school through college. Examines the theoretical models used to explain Chicanos' low achievement and educational attainment. Investigates the Effective Schools and Accelerated Schools intervention models and adapts them for use with Chicano students. This research…

Describes a comparative progress analysis of the formulation and implementation of aims and objectives in two traditional nursery schools and two community nurseries providing integrated education, health, and social services, in the Strathclyde region of Scotland. Found that the traditional nursery schools were better organized and more…

Examined educational attitudes of 168 students and their parents in the first year of a primary level multiage program. Found that although the majority of parents and students considered the experience positive, their principal concern was that older students did not appear to be sufficiently challenged academically, suggesting the need for…

The experiences of two school districts (Omaha, Nebraska, and Littleton, Colorado) highlight the actions needed to maintain the momentum of school improvement. Factors that influence momentum include strong and stable leadership, sufficient time to build relationships, empowerment of key parties, parental involvement, community support, staff…

Formulates 3 hypotheses based on contingency, congruency, and contextual relationships, and tests them empirically on a dataset of 71 randomly selected Dutch secondary schools. Results show that managerial competence is most obvious during hard times, and that principals need more crisis-management training. (52 references) (MLH)

The relationship between preschool experience and the quality of schools subsequently attended as young adolescents was studied for 14,837 eighth graders from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988. The low quality of middle-grade schools attended by former Head Start participants explains, in part, why Head Start effects fail. (SLD)

Critically reviews and assesses the (largely North American) literature on effective schools. Examines the transnational impact of this literature and its limitations in developing nations. Outlines differences between the school effectiveness paradigm and the educational quality paradigm in assumptions about good educational practice. Proposes…

Discusses using the effective schools model to create better communication between concerned parents and school officials, noting school personnel must listen to parents' thoughts. Teachers know how to involve students in learning processes; and they must apply that concept to relationships with parents, thus providing a new perspective in…

Describes development of qualitative performance indicators for school auditing tool in Scotland. Describes audit's uses and rationale. Describes authors' approach to identifying and isolating qualities of good learning and teaching. Two appendices exemplify performance indicators, subthemes, and descriptors for one secondary-school department.…

This paper examines school restructuring, the national education goals, and opportunities to improve the quality of education for adolescents with behavioral disorders. The paper favors adjustment as a goal along with achievement, a focus on broad outcomes of education, and links between mental health and education. (JDD)

The effective schools approach and restructuring are two overlapping and sometimes compatible strategies for school improvement. The effective schools approach allows teachers to choose from a menu of proven strategies, whereas restructuring presents a blank slate in hopes of more radical solutions that support more teacher ownership. (SLD)

A literature review on the impact of college on students is summarized. Issues addressed include: relative impact of elite colleges; role of human, financial, and material resources in student experience; student effort as predictor of impact; importance of interpersonal life on campus; college social and moral environment; and focus on learning.…

Process indicators (PIs) of school functioning and their place within the educational indicators systems are discussed. Literature is reviewed as a basis for selection of PIs for an integral model of school effectiveness. Although it is difficult to collect data on PIs, they provide valuable information on system functioning. (SLD)

School effectiveness, rather than distribution of power, is the key school reform issue. The structure of shared decision making should be driven by what administrators and teachers believe is important for kids. In a recently restructured San Diego community school, the principal's primary function as chief executive officer is "keeper of…