This book originally written in 1978, houses a pessimistic view of American culture that the author sees no reason to modify. The central argument is that the national faith in individual initiative and free opportunity has become a breeding ground for guilt about our own limited successes and prejudice against all who exhibit signs of failure.…

This resource manual was produced to assist the South Carolina Technical College System's efforts to improve institutional effectiveness and accountability. The first two sections of the manual provide a brief foreword, a description of state initiatives for research and academic excellence in South Carolina, the text of state legislation…

Rural public schools can be perceived as economic drains on community resources; they also can be perceived as being of inadequate quality, hence demanding more support. Educational critics, however, are questioning the notion that more is better and are recommending teaching fewer, more integrated courses, in longer time periods. In analyzing…

A study conducted in 1988 assessed the effectiveness of the multigrade system in providing a primary education at four pilot schools in sparsely populated, rural areas of Zambia. In an attempt to alleviate the problems of financial strain and low enrollment in rural schools, this system combines two or more grade levels into one class taught by…

California Assembly Bill 1725 requires the development and implementation of a comprehensive community college educational and fiscal accountability system. In response to the bill, the Chancellor's Office (CO) of the California Community Colleges is moving away from its traditional functions of compliance and regulatory activity toward…

In May 1993, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board formed the Task Force on Institutional Effectiveness (TFIE) to develop a state-level evaluation and continuous improvement plan for community and technical college (CTC) workforce education and academic programs. This report presents the plan for utilizing data collected on CTC's in three…

If an institution's goal is cultural diversity, the institutional response must go beyond a core curriculum that transmits culture or a multicultural curriculum which transforms culture, and embrace a curriculum which enhances individual differences. The core curriculum has an unabashed European cultural bias and requires assimilation to the…

A profile of leadership behaviors that describes principals who successfully improve schools has emerged from effective schools literature and research of the corporate world. Instructional leadership involves four technical tasks that comprise a leadership profile: curriculum development, teaching supervision, staff development, and teacher…

In 1990-91, over 75,000 surveys were administered to Austin Independent School District (AISD), Texas, high school students. elementary school and secondary school teachers and administrators, other school professionals, and parents of students. These surveys gave respondents a chance to express their views on the AISD, and provide insight into…

After reviewing definitions of school climate with emphasis on the four dimensions of school climate described by Tagiuri (1968), this document examines factors within Tagiuri's school culture and social system dimensions as manifested in the climate of average elementary and secondary schools and as they affect low achievers. Variables examined…

This paper highlights measurement issues faced when attempting to assess and interpret results of a school improvement project. Based on the assumption that to measure effectiveness, one must measure a wide variety of school factors, the paper presents a broad perspective on measurement problems and dilemmas in analyzing norm-referenced test data…

This volume documents the response to the final report of the National Commission on Excellence in Education, "A Nation at Risk," at national, state, and local levels during calendar 1983. It is divided into three parts. The first part, "The Nation Responds: An Overview," describes national developments in education during this…

The first round of a study of what happens to students after they leave Peel County (Ontario) secondary schools includes data from students who were in grade 11 in 1977-78 and 1979-80. A 10 percent sample (approximately 750 students in each group) was drawn from school records. Of these, 1,072 people (75 percent) were interviewed by telephone.…

Educational policy makers have questioned the effects of school reform on at-risk students and suggested that higher academic standards may be associated with greater numbers of dropouts. This study examines school average dropout rates for 2 consecutive years in conjunction with percent aid to families with dependent children (AFDC), total…

This presentation describes a curriculum revitalization project begun in Spring, 1983 in Baxter Springs, Kansas. The cooperative "effective schools" effort used a broad base of support to establish a director of curriculum, create new school-university ties, focus a reading K-12 curriculum improvement effort, and hold instructional…