Amherst Middle School (Sherwood, Washington) has been undergoing a change process initiated by a small group of teachers who began an investigation into excellence in middle school education. An outcome has been that Amherst became a Puget Sound Professional Development School (PSPDS) while implementing a state-sponsored School for the…

A project provided technical assistance to approximately 200 vocational guidance/counseling program personnel in the Northeast Texas Area. A project advisory committee provided input for program planning, program improvement, and program evaluation. The project provided instruction in the courses required for certification in vocational…

This report describes the results of a regional needs assessment of workforce issues related to the delivery of community-based services for children and adolescents with serious emotional disturbance or mental illness and their families in a region comprising 12 southern states. The assessment involved a survey of key stakeholders, principally…

Due to heavy teaching loads, high adjunct faculty numbers, and scheduling and commuting factors, community college faculty infrequently have the opportunity to share in a collegial forum. In an attempt to provide an opportunity for faculty to share innovative instructional strategies and discuss their work, Hudson Valley Community College (HVCC),…

An innovative approach to the preparation of school administrators is described in which instructor and student come together in a learning situation that integrates three core components: (1) formative portfolio assessment; (2) reflective practice; and (3) cognitive apprenticeship. The operation and impact of this approach are illustrated through…

The Appalachia Educational Laboratory qualitative study of the implementation of five aspects of the Kentucky Education Reform Act in four rural school districts is now in its fourth year. This paper focuses on findings concerning the first year of the primary program, which was put into widespread operation in 1992-93. Nongraded primary programs…

This paper is organized as a dialogue between two female administrators, the superintendent of program and the superintendent of operations, from the Wellington County Board of Education in southwestern Ontario, Canada. After describing Wellington County and the organizational structure of the school board, the superintendents describe the nature…

A history of the development of the University of Kentucky Community College System (UKCCS) and selected data on 1989-90 enrollments, instructional programs, financial support, and student characteristics comprise this report. Section I focuses on enrollment, providing fall 1989 headcount data for each of the 15 UKCCS campuses aggregated by…

Focusing on the call for changes in school administration, this document reviews the nature of the educational reform movement in the 1980s before describing four trends that have fueled reform proposals. Trends described include general conditions such as the larger reform debate and the new conceptions of the appropriate organizational structure…

For this exploratory study, 20 child care aides, teachers, and directors in 4 different types of child care centers in Santa Clara County, California, were interviewed. The four centers were: (1) a nonprofit center subsidized by the state that served 166 children of AFDC-eligible parents or parents in job training programs; (2) a nonprofit center…

This National Education Association research survey forms a profile of the American public school teacher and provides information covering a 25-year period from 1961-86. The survey offers insights about trends in the composition of the teaching profession, the characteristics of teaching service, and the changing position of teachers in society.…

The speech communications professionals who are involved in training and consulting need to conceptualize and talk about their activities as communication educators--not as trainers. Clients should be taught to make interpretive choices appropriate to their rhetorical environment, in addition to learning basic skills. As educators in the corporate…

This book is a manual for educators to use in curriculum planning and development. Chapter 1 examines the nature of curriculum and its relationship to instruction by (1) defining curriculum and the four main levels of curriculum work (curriculum policy, field of study, program of studies, and course) and (2) distinguishing between six types of…

This paper examines factors that promote and diminish teacher trust in the instructional supervision process. Trust--key to the supervisor's success in helping teachers change behaviors--is correlated with such factors as confidentiality, approach to dealing with complaints, and the development of collaboration and participation in supervisory…

The effectiveness of an organizations's adaptive behavior depends on the extent to which public relations concerns are considered in goal setting and program planning. The following five open systems propositions, based on a "functional" paradigm, address the complex relationship between public relations and organizational intelligence and do not…