Democratic leadership processes are desirable for schools not only because they reflect socially mandated ethical commitments to collective process. They can be professionally justified as a necessary approach to leading schools effectively in the increasingly culturally diverse communities and a world transformed by the effects of technology and…

Purpose: This paper sets out to posit that the new economy places a new set of demands on schools and those who lead. Mindfulness, intentional engagement of people and adaptive confidence are needed developmental features of beginning principal success. The paper examines how beginning principals in Canada respond to the capacity-building work of…

A poorly performing school is like a complex puzzle with its pieces haphazardly scattered. To achieve coherence and improve performance, a principal must have a vision of how the completed puzzle should look. Schools that have effectively implemented instructional models have principals that are puzzle solvers. To fit diverse needs into place and…

The Agenda Setting Model is a program component that can be used in courses to contribute to students' development as responsible, effective, and informed citizens. This model involves students in finding a unified voice to assert an agenda of issues that they find especially pressing. This is often the only time students experience such a…

In spring 1989, a group of 33 administrators, supervisors, faculty, and staff from El Camino College (ECC) in Torrance, California, attended 10 days of training in Total Quality Management (TQM) tools and techniques. The subsequent implementation of TQM at ECC included the following six phases: (1) establishing a Campus Commitment to Excellence…

The process of school-empowerment ultimately may be intellectual: an awareness and understanding by schools as unique collective learning communities that new school structures, roles, and relationships are necessary in the first place. First, preliminary results from field studies of schools undergoing restructuring are used to show that school…

This paper describes the Duke University Libraries' transition in early 1994 from its traditional hierarchical model to an organization emphasizing Total Quality Management (TQM) concepts such as self-managing teams and continuous improvement. Existing conditions at the libraries that played a role in the decision to switch included: (1) rising…

The Chicago (Illinois) School Reform Act of 1988 set in motion a chain of reform efforts that have been the subject of considerable study. The plan emphasizes returning control of the schools to parents and the community through school-based management and local school councils. This book reports on studies of the implementation of the reform…

A qualitative study was undertaken to examine similarities and differences in the leadership styles of two successful private liberal arts college presidents and two successful public two-year college presidents. During site visits, a series of semi-structured, open-ended interviews were conducted with the president, senior staff and faculty,…

To develop a college-wide resolution process for dealing with student concerns, Burlington County College, in New Jersey, undertook a planning effort involving the faculty, student, staff, and administrator senates in the college's governance system. Rather than appoint an administrator to lead the project, a member of the staff senate was…

Intended to stimulate improvements in shared governance in the California Community Colleges, this report outlines the evolution and current structures of shared governance at the local and system levels and provides recommendations for change to better serve the public interest. Following a preface, chapter 1 describes the evolution of shared…

The Institutional Functioning Survey (IFS) is a self-administered, anonymous questionnaire designed to assess how different employee groups at an educational institution perceive their institution. In October 1989, the IFS was distributed to all 63 full-time faculty, 131 part-time faculty, and 12 administrators at the College of the Canyons (CC)…

Principals must integrate information originating from many sectors among the schools' constituents. The degree to which constituent groups participate in school activities helps determine the quality of instruction and learning. Crucial to the role of administrator is a network of interactions between people and things, school board pressures and…

This report briefly introduces the ideas of six influential individuals in the field of quality control, and relates these concepts to current educational innovations. Quality is defined by Philip B. Crosby as the result of a culture of relationships within an organization. W. Edwards Deming espouses intrinsic motivation for all employees,…

One method of training principals and teachers to lead substantive change initiatives lies in partnership activities between schools and the local university. The Collaborative School Improvement Program (C-SIP) is a successful school-university partnership that focuses upon collaborative relationships between Eastern Michigan University and area…