Guidelines and implementation options for a program to evaluate the outcomes of collegiate education in New Jersey are discussed. A good program must seek to: (1) maintain public confidence; (2) nuture institutional autonomy and individual diversity; and (3) stimulate educational excellence. College outcomes that the program should cover are:…

Curriculum alignment (CA) refers to the congruence of all the elements of a school's curriculum: curriculum goals; instructional program--what is taught and the materials used; and tests used to judge outcomes. CA can be a very powerful can be a very powerful factor in improving schools. Although further research is needed on CA, there is…

Phase III of the Louisiana School Effectiveness Study (LSES-III) was designed in part to obtain rich, qualitative data on the characteristics of more and less effective schools in the Gulf South. Data were gathered on eight matched outlier pairs of schools during the 1984-1985 school year. Of the eight historically ineffective schools in LSES-III,…

This paper explores ways in which technology (especially microcomputers) can improve the access to and utility of educational data for school improvement efforts. The paper focuses on the product and project options available to the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory's Database and School Profiling program, which offers technical and…

Spurred by a national dropout rate of 25 percent, educators are examining causes of leaving school early, identifying high risk students, and devising student retention programs. This paper profiles the potential dropout, describes 10 characteristics of effective student retention programs, and describes three exemplary programs in Colorado,…

Recently, the traditional school structure has been harshly scrutinized for several key defects, including bureaucratic rules and regulations, professional isolation of teaching staff, evaluation systems irrelevant to instructional improvement, low teacher participation in decision making, and noncooperation between teachers and administrators.…

Academic and social performance of 204 high school students who had attended one-teacher rural elementary schools in Nebraska, South Dakota, and Montana was investigated to determine if small school students were disadvantaged in a larger high school setting. Data gathered by questionnaires from students, school administrators, and counselors…

Findings from four lines of inquiry that attempt to identify teaching skills are reviewed. Following a brief introduction, the first section discusses definitions of "skill" and outlines empirical attributes of teaching skills. In the following section, the four lines of inquiry are described. Results are analyzed in the third section.…

Thirteen of 14 secondary schools increased their educational effectiveness by participating in a long-term, 12-step change process with two significant features: several measures were applied to develop a picture of each school's effectiveness, and student involvement in the process was considered essential. Schools were categorized by…

This cost analysis reports on a year-round education program in the Oxnard School District, California. Twelve of the district's 15 K-8 schools are maintained on four staggered year-round education tracks; a fifth track offers the traditional calendar to two schools. Year-round education was implemented in 1976 to accommodate a sudden increase in…

This report focuses on the instructional leadership role of the school superintendent and recommends an operational model superintendents should follow to produce an effective academic environment for elementary and secondary students. Americans' concern about quality of education can be addressed by informative study of successful management of…

The Effective Schools Project is a test of a general method for improving organizational effectiveness. The method--Program Development Evaluation (PDE)--calls for researcher-practitioner collaboration in the design, implementation, and evaluation of programs to increase school effectiveness. Two Baltimore City junior high schools are working with…

This book is the result of a study conducted with 200 high schools in the South to determine what factors make schools effective in educating students and creating a healthy social environment. The book is particularly concerned with improving desegregated high schools and presents specific recommendations for doing so. Using survey data from…

Modern school research in Sweden has shown that the old selective school has been slowly transformed into an elective school, which in many ways resembles the old selective school with its parallel education systems. It is known that social background and a number of other variables (sex, nationality, type of class, etc.) have a crucial bearing on…

This transcript of a Congressional hearing concerns improving and strengthening the quality of education in Boston and other cities. The testimony centers around the systemwide planning process that has established the Boston Plan for Excellence in the Public Schools and the incentive programs that have been implemented. A major issue is federal…