This book presents current knowledge about teaching culturally diverse populations that are traditionally underserved in U.S. schools. Such ethnic minority populations include African Americans, Appalachians, Native Alaskans, Native Americans, and Latin Americans. Part 1, "Shaping a Vision for the Schooling of Diverse Populations,"…

This paper reports the results of a study of changes in the social distribution of mathematics achievement for a cohort of public high school students. Using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) the study sought to identify school characteristics which were significantly correlated with changes in achievement differences from grade 9 to grade 11…

The purpose of this report is to evaluate the seven alternative schools in the Houston (Texas) Independent School District by describing the students who were served by the programs, and by assessing the effectiveness of the programs in improving student academic performance and attendance. The following schools provide education to at-risk…

Factors that contribute to excellence in education, as well as those that have contributed to the failure of change efforts, are the subject of this document. It provides a summary of the literature on reform efforts; effective schools; new organizational perspectives derived from the business sector; organizational restructuring being tested in…

A study was conducted to determine if actual California Achievement Test subtest scores were significantly different than expected in a large, urban school district that had just implemented its first component--staff development--based on the Effective School Model (ESM). Subjects consisted of 1,591 fourth through sixth graders and 1,557 sixth…

Of all challenges facing open-door community colleges, none is more important than the need to renew and improve teaching quality in order to accommodate increasingly diversified student populations. Several policies have been particularly helpful to open-door institutions in improving student retention and achievement, including the following:…

Data on ten aspects of the institutional effectiveness of Howard Community College (HCC) are presented in this report. Section 1 provides actual and projected enrollment figures. Section 2 assesses quality of instruction in terms of student survey responses, full-/part-time faculty ratios, and faculty salaries. Section 3 focuses on educational…

Three research questions are addressed in this paper: (1) What does school improvement mean in relation to the context of a research project? (2) Given particular developments in European society and the nature of primary research data, what should schools be like in the year 2001? (3) What steps are being taken in research and development to…

In 1988, Midlands Technical College (MTC) launched a comprehensive institutional effectiveness initiative involving two primary components, planning and evaluation. Planning at MTC is composed of a strategic planning cycle and a complementary operational planning cycle. Strategic planning, conducted in two-year cycles, establishes the essential…

Decentralization efforts in Australia after the publishing of the "Better Schools" report in 1987 are described in this paper. An overview of the implementation process concludes that the transition is halfway completed. However, the process has encountered strong resistance. Authority to determine the means, but not ends, was devolved…

This paper examines current practice for youth at risk of not successfully making the transition to adulthood in six urban secondary schools. It describes the major elements of at-risk policies and programs and raises concerns about the strategies currently in place at the sites. The following strategies are discussed: (1) curriculum and…

This staff report summarizes testimony on competitiveness and the quality of the American work force. The testimony was received during 9 days of hearings held between September 23 and December 3, 1987, that featured 52 witnesses including federal and state officials, educators, business and labor leaders, and scholars. Contents comprise prepared…

Recent studies on educational effectiveness in the United States have criticized deficiencies of the educational system, rather than acknowledging its achievements. The eight characteristics of excellent schools described in "Search for Excellence" by Peters and Waterman (1982) provide a comparative framework for an assessment of organizational…

This issue of "Network News" focuses on efforts to remedy the dropout problem. The following programs' common goal is not only to retain students through graduation, but to ensure that they acquire the skills necessary to take their place as productive members of society: (1) the Classroom Partners Project, a collaborative effort between…

Guided by interpretive ethnographic methods and by instructional leadership concepts, this comparative study of secondary principals in Japan and America discovers characteristics of excellent principals and examines their values in relation to dominant cultural themes. The investigation applies anthropologist Clifford Goertz's assumptions (1973,…