Restructuring schools has become a rallying cry among educators. It aims to create schools that are more centered on learner's needs for active, experiential, cooperative, and culturally connected learning opportunities supportive of individual talents and learning styles. This report is based on an early evaluation of the process of restructuring…

This paper revisits the literature on the nature of school organizations and presents a view of secondary schools as complex social systems, as opposed to bureaucratic-rational structures. Research was conducted into three Western Australia secondary schools planning to implement school-based decision making and planning procedures. The…

Existing qualitative studies of school principals suffer from procedural or conceptual shortcomings that result in failure to clarify the principal's instructional role. This paper describes the methodology and procedures of a year-long, multimethod, multilevel field study of 12 school principals. First, the background for the study (the…

This study was conducted to examine high school teachers' perceptions of self-efficacy and ways in which self-perception is affected by: (1) differences in the characteristics of classes taught; (2) differences in the organizational environments in which teachers work; and (3) interactions that neutralize the negative effects of difficult classes.…

The refinement and application of the School Organizational Climate Questionnaire (SOCQ), an instrument for measuring organizational climate, is described in this report. The instrument is a mechanism by which schools can direct their school improvement efforts. In two case studies, a small urban elementary and a large urban secondary school…

In August 1986, at the request of the Board of School Trustees of Nanaimo, British Columbia, a Secondary school Reorganization Task Force was established to develop an implementation plan for Grades 8-12 reorganization of four of the six secondary schools in School District 68. This report outlines how such reorganization would occur and what its…

Oaklea (Oregon) Middle School provides an innovative program of instruction to district students in grades 5-8. To facilitate this individualized approach, the school is divided into four smaller schools in which teachers and students spend four years together as students proceed through the instructional program. An important feature of this…

Drawing data from 20 school districts in 8 states, this study assessed the collective impact of federal categorical programs and related civil rights mandates on 6 problem areas in local school districts. Interviews with a variety of respondents in local districts focused on the federal laws' effects on instructional services for target students,…

This article traces the development and rationale of the School Improvement Program proposed by the new Labor Government of Victoria (Australia). The program would be based on school communities, each voluntarily developing a long-term project improving the school as an educational entity. The design assumptions, funding criteria, and implications…

This review is a comprehensive assessment of the effectiveness and efficiency of education in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) government high schools, addressing basic questions and making recommendations concerning goals, school structure, provision of resources, curriculum, and educational outcomes. It is divided into 13 chapters covering…

There is widespread discussion in OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries regarding the need to improve educational quality. Education is not an assembly-line process of mechanically increasing inputs and raising productivity. Educational quality concerns raise fundamental questions about societal aims, the nature of…

A survey of decentralization efforts of the central administrative boards in Sweden shows that over the past half-century, very little happened until the 1980s. As a result, administrative boards acquired fewer regulatory and more informative, activating, and investigative duties. This paper describes the relationships of three national…

Concerned with organizational approaches to student behavior, this paper first describes the key elements of organizational structure and leadership. These include articulation of organizational goals, such as ensuring an orderly environment conducive to learning and cultivating responsible student behavior and good character. The school's control…

Mastery learning is both a philosophy about student learning and a set of instructional implementation techniques. This volume presents 10 case studies of instructional programs identified as mastery learning or outcome-based education. The programs are organized according to whole-class mastery, flexible grouping, flexible grouping/continuous…

Presenting a short summary of the advantages and disadvantages of four different year-round education calendars including three- and four-track schedules and four- and five-term quarter systems, this document contains numerous graphs, sample calendar models, and schedules. Also detailed within this document is a proposed year-round calendar for…