The Governmental Accounting Standards Board is completing an examination of current practices in state and local government for reporting service efforts and accomplishments (SEA) indicators. Exhibits present the goals and objectives for elementary and secondary education and recommendations for a comprehensive set of SEA indicators for school…

Today's principal still faces many of the control issues of the 1960s and 1970s, due to subtance abuse, child abuse, gang violence, dropouts, and other problems. Emerging technology is making curriculum obsolete. The principal can emerge as a community hero by involving parents and community leaders in creating an instructional improvement plan.…

Investigates if the characteristics of school boards and their administrative control explain variance among schools in academic achievement, based on a random sample of 133 Dutch school boards and 1 elementary school they oversee. Findings support the hypothesis, even after controlling for student background and school characteristics. The key is…

Profiles nine low-spending, high-performance districts located in small to medium-sized, largely white communities boasting stable economies and a high quality of life. Although the districts are labelled "cheap" for various reasons, their superintendents ascribe success to superior, autonomous staff; high expectations for students; and…

To move high schools into the twenty-first century, school leadership must undergo massive restructuring. Four reasons for schools' inability to change are cited, and characteristics of effective and efficient school are identified. An eight-step process of school restructuring and a school-design statement with three basic components and eight…

Disagrees with Whitson's central point that the creative element in schools is in the minority. Also takes issue with Whitson's perception of the historic role of education in this country, using data that show how education has been viewed, since the nation's founding, as an endeavor to direct students' behavior toward compliance, not…

Presents common-sense approach that teaches principals how to assess themselves and their schools and gives them the authority to implement change. Superintendents need to visit schools at least twice monthly, pose improvement-oriented questions to principals, offer support for school improvement plans. Questions are concerned about defining…

This study examined means and variances of teacher behavior in effective versus ineffective elementary schools. Teacher and principal interviews and observations on seven dimensions of teaching behavior indicated effective schools had better teacher socialization processes, stronger instructional leaders, strictly enforced schoolwide discipline…

Examines various ways that principals provide leadership for school improvement and the relationship of these "change facilitator styles" to school effectiveness in different work contexts. Results of this study of 472 Louisiana elementary teachers indicate that principals exhibited different leadership styles across effectiveness and…

Discusses issues involved in the assessment of community nurseries providing integrated education, health, and social services in the Strathclyde region of Scotland. Describes a quality assessment that found that quality varied over time and between institutions, although all showed improvements by the third and final rating. (MDM)

Compared the progress made by children in regard to social and emotional behavior problems in community nurseries providing integrated education, health, and social services and in traditional nursery schools in the Strathclyde region of Scotland. Found that progress made by most children in community nurseries was similar to that made by children…

Multiple program impact analysis was used to evaluate the overall effectiveness in programs for 11,766 first-year students at the University of Texas at Austin. The technique examines the relationship between involvement in multiple educational programs and selected educational outcomes. Among findings was that participation in more than one…

Presents 13 commentaries on a previously published case study about the value of a Master's of Business Administration to employers today. Critiques center on the case study method, theory-practice gap, and value of practical experience and include international perspectives. (SK)

A survey asked regular and special educators to rate the importance of 228 items potentially valuable for creating learning environments. Results indicated a high degree of consensus about variables considered important in learning environments, with 40 variables receiving the highest average ratings. Regular and special educators' judgments were…

In "Politics, Markets, and American Schools," Chubb and Moe (1990) advocated free market principles that would give individual families the freedom to choose among competing schools. This review claims that Chubb and Moe's empirical case is fatally flawed and that the market approach to choice they embrace threatens the ideal of a…