Many school districts and schools find that they have an incomplete understanding of site-based management (SBM). This guidebook provides a systemwide approach to site-based management, using SBM as a strategy for school improvement and increased student success rather than for managing the status quo. It identifies nine essential perspectives and…

The processes of school improvement at the secondary level are not well understood. This report summarizes activities conducted during 1990-91 in the Asheboro (North Carolina) City Schools in cooperation with personnel at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. The partnership created Teacher Collegial Groups (TCGs), which were leadership…

Proponents of school restructuring agree that it must occur with support from all stakeholder groups. This paper presents findings of a study that examined to what extent educational personnel engaged in restructuring (principals, teachers, and external facilitators of change) agreed or disagreed that 60 conditions identified in the research…

Education in the United Kingdom has been shaped by the advent of local school management and the rapid growth of grant-maintained schools. Total Quality Management (TQM) offers a new way of looking at management principles and structures by identifying the needs of both internal and external customers. This book applies principles of TQM…

Outcomes of Project A+, a school-based improvement (SBI) partnership developed between International Business Machines (IBM) and the Austin Independent School District, are described in this document. SBI is a vehicle for restructuring schools to meet the goal that all students will function successfully at or beyond their appropriate grade…

Effective organizational communication can greatly enhance the quality of the school environment and professional/personal relationships. This book focuses on successful communication skills that can help make the school environment a productive experience for administrators, school staff, students, and parents. Chapter 1 discusses the importance…

This guide identifies selected workplace practices that individual businesses have used to become high performance work organizations. The guide, which is intended for managers, directors, labor leaders, workers, investors, and other individuals interesting in adopting high performance work practices, lays out the basic steps involved in…

Attempts to implement W. Edwards Deming's Total Quality Management (TQM) principles in education and transform school systems into world-class, quality learning environments have proved somewhat disappointing. This book asserts that educators need a way to translate the ideas about corporate quality for adaptation and use in schools. The…

The role that international businesses can play in local foreign language instruction is described based on experiences in teaching French at a women's college in Virginia. Personal contacts have brought French businessmen into the classroom and have provided students with an understanding of the relevance of their studies, provided an outreach…

Use of the School Climate and Context Inventory (SCCI) as a measure of school climate was investigated. The SCCI had previously been used as a measure of climate in a study of six rural high schools in Kentucky and Tennessee; in the current study, the SCCI was administered to 20 faculty members from each school. Split-half correlation and…

A college instructor, already experienced as a consultant and trainer in written and oral business communication, became convinced by two students in an executive management training program that gaining an insider's perspective might be exceedingly valuable. A few years later, the instructor got such an opportunity: she became a corporate editor…

Findings of a study that examined the relationship between classroom orientation and sociometric patterns within the classroom are presented in this paper. Methodology involved observation of 12 classrooms in Ontario and administration of two survey instruments to 20 fourth-year students. Classroom orientations were categorized as cooperative,…

Findings of a study that determined factors of beginning teachers' work and career choice commitment and retention are presented in this paper. The data consisted of a nationally representative sample of first-year K-12 public and private, full- and part-time teachers derived from the 1987-88 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). The final subsample…

This report describes four schools (two elementary, one middle, and one senior high) whose administration and faculty made longterm commitments to curricular and organizational change to meet the needs of a diverse student population. Data sources included observation of meetings; conversations with staff members; and informal interviews with…

This paper presents findings of a study that examined the impact of organizational type on management training. Two case studies compared the management training programs of a suburban school district and a Fortune 500, energy-related organization. Data were obtained from interviews with key informants, observations, and document analysis. Using…