The conceptual level of teachers was measured in relation to their preferences for support in the supervisory tasks of staff development, curriculum development, and instructional improvement. It was hypothesized that teachers at a high level of conceptual development would prefer to be more involved with others and more flexible in adapting their…

This interim guide develops a new high school option, Lifestyles 205 and provides teachers with a curriculum for a lifestyles studies course for grade 11 or 12. The course includes several major components that emphasize the roles of the developing individual as a producer and consumer and as a family and community member. Major functions of the…

The Parent Involvement in Education Project, a research project sponsored by Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, is based on the tenet that to improve the quality of our public schools, parents and educators must develop a more collaborative relationship. In order to help determine the prospects for bringing about such a relationship, a…

Utilizing data from 31 applications for financial assistance from Johnson-O'Malley (JOM) Indian Education Fund for the 1980-81 school year, the study examined the influence of Indian Parent Advisory Committees (PACs) over school curricula and activities supported by JOM funds in Washington State. Applications were surveyed for information relating…

These learning activities are intended to help elementary school children learn how to communicate, cooperate, and prevent or solve conflicts through creative thinking. There are 17 chapters. The first five chapters provide background information for teachers, discussing the Children's Creative Response to Conflict (CCRC) Program, ways to create a…

Based on recent school effectiveness literature, this paper suggests local policies to stimulate and facilitate school reform. After discussing the goals of the effective schools movement and briefly reviewing the literature, it presents a two-phase model for school improvement projects, based on the premise that a school's culture primarily…

Despite consensus on the administrative reforms needed in school effectiveness programs, policy problems are raised when administrators and school boards want to translate research findings on school improvement into practical terms. Although school systems are now using a number of organizational tools that lift standardized test scores (for…

Part of a nine-country cross-cultural research project designed to answer the question "Why do people want children?", this study examined the social, psychological, socioeconomic, and demographic determinants of fertility in Turkey. A nationally representative sample of 2305 married persons (1762 females and 543 males) were interviewed…

As early as July 1974, the System of Interactive Guidance and Information (SIGI), a computer-based aid to career decision making, had been identified for possible use at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID). A task force that intensively studied SIGI and its potential for use within NTID recommended that it be brought to NTID. For…

A college English teacher, dissatisfied with the approach used in her composition classes and with its results, turned to the Outward Bound concepts of the German physician and schoolmaster, Kurt Hahn. These concepts include a belief in the value of creating adversity in order to overcome it, a belief that important things happen to people who are…

Rapid residential growth in rural areas or on the fringes of urban areas brings both costs and benefits. Seven factors determine whether new homes and subdivisions generate more revenues than expenditures. Local governments can substantially influence four of these seven factors in order to reduce the public costs of residential growth. Less…

School integration and quality education are examined in this paper in the context of public school desegregation. Specifically, the paper provides an overview of the role the courts have played historically in advancing toward quality integrated education. Following the overview, the impact of court rulings relative to the conduct of field-based…

This paper synthesizes data from two studies of educational change to describe how school contextual factors influenced teacher involvement and how principals reduced those influences. The first study, involving 14 schools representing a mixture of levels and types of areas served, began in 1979 and spanned 3 school years; the second study, which…

The Community Advisory Committee (CAC) is a strategy to involve the community in active participation in the development, amendment, and review of the local plan for special education. The CAC originated under the design of the California Master Plan for Special Education. The CAC brings together and supports parents and professionals, regular and…

Although methodological integrity is not the sole determinant of the value of a program evaluation, decision-makers do have a right, at a minimum, to be able to expect competent work from evaluators. This paper explores five areas where evaluators might improve methodological practices. First, evaluation reports should reflect the limited…