Education in the twenty-first century must include community service as part of its mission. School-based community service fosters the development of "niches," establishes the school as a community talent base, allows schools more flexibility in relevant program development, permits school access to community financial and service…

A nationwide study of 500 schools showed that attending an effectively organized high school is worth an extra year's achievement over the course of one's high-school career. Only student aptitude trumped school organization as an achievement influence. Productive schools stress sound planning, people and program development, and accountability.…

Qualitative data from five British secondary schools show that strong headteachers have similar, well-balanced leadership styles and strategies and are able to motivate staff and students. Poor leaders use a limited range of styles and strategies. Social context, internal politics, and external pressures constrain the leadership of headteachers.…

Discusses the "house" concept architectural design at Albert Lea High School (Minnesota) and how the design addresses the community's 21st Century educational goals. Photos and a floor plan are included. (GR)

Discusses a study that was part of a larger project commissioned by the Scottish Office Education Department in 1994 (the Improving School Effectiveness Project) that gathered extensive qualitative data on a subset of 24 schools. The study showed a correlation between school development planning processes and school effectiveness. (Contains 20…

Compared three residual-based methods for indexing school effectiveness using data from elementary schools in Maryland. Results indicate that the hierarchical linear model approach had higher stability across achievement test forms. Results further suggest that when only school-level data are available, the use of either of the school-level models…

Although Texas has encountered challenges while working to improve the school accountability system, results thus far are promising. The Texas Public School Accountability System has contributed to impressive student achievement gains while reducing the achievement gap among various groups of students. Elementary schools have shown the greatest…

Within the context of continual dissatisfaction with American public schools, charter school proponents view charter schools as a viable reform mechanism. Here, Garrison and Holifield compare the perceptions of charter school principals regarding the extent to which the effective school correlates have been implemented in their respective schools…

The primary objective of this paper has been to define a quality university from the user's perspective, based on what students expressed regarding different aspects of the institution. Two methodologically different formats of collecting information have assisted in testing the coherence of their opinions. A qualitative and quantitative approach…

Identifying Maine's higher and lower performing schools may be useful for many purposes, but two are particularly important. Identifying these schools is important for developing and refining Maine's new funding formula. Maine's Essential Programs and Services (EPS) school funding formula is what is known nationally as a cost-based adequacy model.…

Recent government initiatives encouraging diversity and the expansion of popular and successful schools have proved controversial, encouraging debate about the efficacy of faith schools. This paper takes a longitudinal approach drawing together Section 10 inspection reports and examination data to compare levels of academic attainment of Catholic…

Households pay a premium to live in houses assigned to high quality public schools, and the housing market yields information about the demand for public school quality. The current study estimates a two-stage house price hedonic emphasizing the role that private schools play in the willingness to pay for public school quality. The elasticity of…

This paper examines some of the research for outcomes-based education in Australia. It does not claim to be a comprehensive review--only indicative of the sorts of research behind a movement that has frequently been dismissed as being only ideologically driven. It traces the genesis of the OBE movement in the USA, how it developed in Australia in…

The road to a college degree is often littered with potholes of self-doubt, and sometimes those are deep enough to discourage even the most ambitious students. If the transition from high school to college were easy, the average six-year graduation rate at four-year institutions in the U.S. would probably be higher than 63%. To improve those…

There exists the need to better understand the effectiveness of online education. In recent years, academic institutions (of higher education) have increased the number of online courses offered to students. The purpose of this study is to identify the factors that are most influential in determining student satisfaction of overall course…