The internal consistency of the Self Assessment Instrument of Chapter 1 Program Quality (SAICPQ) was studied. This instrument is widely used to assess the implementation of exemplary practices in compensatory education. The SAICPQ is a self-report questionnaire consisting of 13 subscales representing correlates of achievement in studies of…

The superintendent of the Bibb County, Georgia, Public School System devised a program to develop a cadre of competent administrators to assume leadership positions as they became vacant. The Leadership Development Program took 18 classroom teachers with administrative aspirations and provided them with a variety of experiences under the guidance…

Organizational theorists have viewed organizations as "mini-societies" based upon commonly held cultural values and assumptions, which may serve to revolutionize organizational practices or to bring about new organization structures. The middle school is an example of an educational institution that has arisen as a result of a particular set of…

This collection of essays by current or former directors of institutional research represents the broad spectrum of size, function, and geography within institutional research in the two-year college. The volume contains: (1) "The Role of Institutional Research in Evaluation of Nontraditional Programs: College Preparatory Analysis at Miami-Dade…

This paper reports the status of the Profile of School Excellence (PRO-S/E) after three years use and the results of a second validation study. The PRO-S/E, used in over 20 school districts in six states, is a diagnostic system school districts use to determine strengths and weaknesses based on 11 characteristics of effective schools. Data is…

This survey is designed to be an assessment instrument for measuring a school's effectiveness in meeting the needs of at-risk and low achieving students. The survey consists of nine sections. Statements listed in each section are used to characterize specific behaviors with a scale rating for how each statement reflects the situation or attitude…

This paper describes the model and process developed by the Connecticut education department to assist schools in improving their effectiveness. The report offers an operational definition of the term "effectiveness" and summarizes the research that provides the conceptual base for the model. The characteristics selected from this…

The current success and acceptability of the Design for School Excellence (DSE) in the Cincinnati (Ohio) Public Schools is due largely to the seriousness in which the Board of Education and the Superintendent communicated with school employees and the entire community in planning the final outcome of this program. From the original suggestion of a…

In 1985 and 1986, 24 and 37 schools respectively, were publicly recognized as merit schools under the Design for School Excellence (DSE) program of the Cincinnati (Ohio) Public School system. The increase in merit schools was not accompanied by a large increase in the number of awards made on individual indicators. Rather, the new merit schools…

This guidebook presents a process to elicit and organize information about school district practices, proposes standards to judge the effectiveness of those practices, and provides a method for determining desired improvements. Following the introduction, section 2 contains a distillation of the research findings on school effectiveness along with…

The consultation model is applied to institutions of higher education in an approach that involves staff and/or faculty in administrative policies and decisions and that will promote innovative educational programs and generate productive working relationships among colleagues. It is suggested that in applying organizational development (OD) in…

In order to analyze the effectiveness of school districts in Kentucky, a study looked at basic skill test scores in reading and language at two grade levels, 3rd and 10th. In order to take into account student differences between school districts, the percentage of students in the "below average" range on the Short Form Test of Academic…

In the introduction to this paper, a discussion is presented of the needs and values of conducting follow-up studies of graduates of teacher education programs. Information that should be revealed by a properly planned and executed follow-up study is listed. It is pointed out that an effective follow-up study should provide information helpful in…

Eighteen major research projects on education and schools in the United States are described in this report. Foci of these projects include: (1) curriculum and classroom environments that make for effective learning; (2) the development of approaches for improving educational quality; (3) basic values in American education; and (4) restructuring…

This report contains research findings on student achievement and retention at New York City alternative high schools serving dropouts and potential dropouts. After a summary and introduction, statistics are presented which reveal that alternative schools facilitate positive changes in student performance. Next, reasons for students' dropping out…