Strategic planning identifies results, based upon an "ideal" vision, to be achieved at three levels: individual, organizational, and societal. This article recommends a megalevel educational planning model that helps planners contemplate societal outcomes in a practical way. A holistic, proactive planning process involves scoping, data…

For Leon County School District (Florida), the most attractive feature of strategic planning was its focus on outcomes that enrich both schools and community. With a clear vision and mission approved by the school board, specific outcomes, and a realistic action plan, the district can better confront its current needs and future opportunities.…

A veteran school board member and survivor of numerous restructuring efforts recounts the Leon County (Florida) School District's experience with strategic planning. Although the process was at time chaotic, Roger Kaufman's planning model helped the board create a climate for change and develop a definitive vision and realistic action plan. (MLH)

Because strategic planning can have a powerful effect on a district's future and its use of resources, district leaders must anticipate the need for extensive communication with all segments of the community at every planning stage. As the experience of Tacoma (Washington) Public Schools shows, regular communication is crucial to success. (MLH)

Educators involved in strategic planning can use environmental scanning techniques to anticipate social, economic, political, and technological changes that will affect their schools. Compared to more traditional data gathering, environmental scanning is wider in scope and more concerned with anticipating the future and studying the interaction of…

Discusses John Dewey's concept of curriculum, as applied in his Laboratory School. Describes the planning of the school and how its curriculum evolved over time. Identifies both Dewey's belief in educational specialization and his understanding of its limits. Notes the implications of Dewey's work for today's educators. (SG)

Discusses using a retreat to promote school renewal, focusing faculty, staff, and parent energies on an shared vision for the future. (SR)

Teachers in Fort Howard, Maryland, adopted a planning wheel to keep teachers' content area central and allow integration of logical, natural elements of associated course content. The planning wheel has become a useful organizer for curriculum development, individual teacher planning, and team planning across daily lessons or at the unit level.…

Explores ways in which educational institutions may undertake market research, using case studies from various educational situations. Recommends market research for long-range planning and marketing activities. (SK)

Since (British) colleges became responsible for strategic planning in 1993, further education managers have encountered criticism for being either too inefficient or too business-like. A study examining 53 college strategic plans suggests that planning occurs within a national strategic vacuum and uses diverse plans and processes. (22 references)…

Principals are the key factor in developing an effective, integrated school library program. Effective principals develop the knowledge base linking collaborative program planning and team teaching to school- and district-wide restructuring efforts. They integrate the library into instructional programs, encourage student use, and establish…

Health care organizations with successful internal education programs can expand their offerings through a formal externalization process. The process involves needs assessment, environmental scanning, identification of internal successes, and selection of appropriate topics. (SK)

States that the Center for the Study of Advanced Learning Systems (ALS) at Michigan State University was developed to serve as a hub for research and development activity. ALS examines long-term issues regarding technological change in postsecondary education. Reports that ALS focuses on five themes: leadership, human capacity, diversity,…

Examines findings of a study that surveyed British primary headteachers about the design and implementation of their school development plans (SDPs). Considers findings in the light of recommendations to schools from the government, the local education authority, and the school effectiveness literature. Comments on discrepancies between the…

Responses from 318 of 1,000 management faculty indicate that only 11% have a plan to apply total quality management (TQM) principles to course delivery, although 61% report teaching them. Three-fourths cited difficulty in measuring the effectiveness of TQM improvements as an obstacle to application. (SK)