School districts have participated in multiple rounds of education reform activity in the past few decades, yet few have made headway on system-wide school improvement. This paper addresses the questions of whether districts matter for school reform progress and what successful "reforming" districts do to achieve system change and to…

State-level governance of community colleges has become increasingly common in the United States, with governance decisions affecting budget appropriations, rules on how appropriations can be spent, and the missions that colleges must strive to fulfill. The most common elements of state-level community college mission statements over the past 100…

This 21st annual report summarizes the activities of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges for 1996-97. The first part presents a report from the Senate President, a financial statement, lists of goals and committee priorities for 1996-97, and minutes from the Senate's fall 1996 and spring 1997 sessions. The second part presents…

This document contains three papers on ethics and integrity in human resource development (HRD). "Redefining Human Resource Development: An Integration of the Learning, Performance, and Spirituality of Work Perspectives" (Reid A. Bates, Tim Hatcher, Elwood F. Holton III, Neal Chalofsky) describes an effort to articulate the tensions…

Mission statements can provide a useful vehicle to communicate the purposes, goals, and objectives for functional units within organizations. This paper studied the extent to which institutional research offices utilize mission statements to communicate office functions. These functions were identified through content analysis, using nine specific…

This paper, which focuses on rural community colleges, is part of a series published by the Center for Community College Policy, designed to support state and local policymakers, as well as educational leaders who are interested in policy issues related to the two-year postsecondary sector. One in four rural communities are severely economically…

This paper, which focuses on technology planning by community colleges, is part of a series published by the Center for Community College Policy, designed to support state and local policymakers, as well as educational leaders who are interested in policy issues related to the two-year postsecondary sector. State policymaker's enthusiasm for…

This report summarizes the marketing plan developed for the Scottsdale Community College Airpark Campus. In order to eradicate this campus' dependence on the main campus for leadership and funds, the author describes three strategic goals designed to make the Airpark campus self-sufficient within 3 years. The first goal involves the recruitment of…

This is the 2000-2005 strategic plan at El Centro College (Texas). It discusses the college's mission, vision, and core values, and provides information on goals and success indicators. Goals include: (1) preparing students for careers and for transfer to four-year institutions; (2) providing quality continuing/workforce education to enrich…

Suggesting that the scientific community must provide leadership to improve science education, discusses various issues in science, chemistry, and chemical education and the role of professional organizations (particularly the American Chemical Society) and its members in achieving educational goals by cooperative efforts and interactions with…

Describes the process for curriculum development effectively used in a rural Alaskan school district and currently being applied in another recently created rural school district. Suggests its potential for adoption in other rural school districts is great. (AH)

Appropriate goals for a college of pharmacy are delineated and related to the goals of a medical center and other administrative units with which it interfaces. The methods through which faculty can contribute their distinctive talents to accomplish the mission of a college of pharmacy are described. (Author/MLW)

Summarizes the contributions of and obstacles to using student development principles in student affairs. The value of using alternative organizational perspectives to better understand student affairs practice is discussed. Describes a promising strategy for increasing the influence and organizational effectiveness of student affairs in the…

The applicability of employee-involvement approaches to the management of schools is explored, describing three approaches (parallel-suggestion involvement, job involvement, and high involvement). Design issues (technology; organizational structure; leadership; organizational boundaries, customer definition, and relation to stakeholder; measures;…

Describes a week-long program sponsored by the Appalachian Regional Commission that brought together over 500 participants from middle-level management of small and mid-sized businesses, local governments, and public and nonprofit service agencies located in Appalachia. Participants were offered courses in total quality management, leadership…