Reviews 1980-95 research exploring the relationship between principal leadership and student achievement. Principals exercise a measurable, but indirect, influence on school effectiveness and student achievement via vision, mission, and goals. Previously described discrepancies may be attributable to researchers' conceptual and methodological…

Assumes that the role and tasks of principals in the maintenance and development of the quality school can only be approached scientifically if two discourses ((1) quality of schools and (2) autonomy of schools) are taken into account. Discusses two central concepts of principalship: (1) instructional leadership role and (2) transformational…

A review of research on effectiveness and improvement in schools and colleges found the improvement literature comparable in methods and findings; effectiveness research differs. Each sector could usefully adapt approaches from the other. College research needs more synthesis and wider dissemination. (Contains 90 references.) (SK)

States that comprehensive, systematic plans to assess student learning can be both the rudder guiding and the sail driving change in staff, program, and organizational development. Explores the nature of assessment and how it can and does serve such roles, driving change in the college or adapting to emerging community needs. Contains 27…

Presents a comprehensive model for assessing the institutional effectiveness of academic programs and illustrates, through a case study, strategies for managing the difficulties inherent within this process. Models the system designed for West Point's Academic Program and describes how the model was implemented into an academic environment.…

Despite an increasingly diverse student population with many English language learners, Reynolds School District (Oregon) has successfully implemented rigorous academic standards. At Glenfair Elementary School, a schoolwide improvement model helps teachers and administrators use educational research to guide decision making about the best ways to…

This sequential, three-phase study used quantitative analyses to examine the characteristics of student dropouts and the characteristics of schools successful and unsuccessful in mediating dropouts. Narrative profiles were created to describe types of students and types of dropouts. Phase I consisted of three parts, each using the student as the…

A portrait, using grounded theory qualitative methodologies, was constructed of a K-12 school serving urban, African American students, one producing high achievement. The primary data were observations complemented by questionnaire responses and document analyses. Consistent with conclusions in the effective schooling literature, this school has…

Three years after a federal law required states to collect a host of education data, much of that information and more will now be available in one place--giving the public a newfound resource and giving educators headaches over how schools can be compared. On a free Web site to be launched on March 29, 2005, a public-private partnership will post…

Studies of subject take-up within secondary education have tended to focus on student characteristics and have rarely attempted to take account of the broad variety of ways, formal and informal, in which schools can constrain or facilitate particular subject choices. In contrast, this article explores both the school and student factors shaping…

This article will review some problems with taking the notion of sustainable development, as a policy, as the touchstone of environmental education and will explore some central strands to understanding sustainability as a frame of mind. It will be argued that at the heart of this interpretation of sustainability lies the notion of a right…

This paper argues the need for broader criteria than are customarily used, for measuring pupil achievement, school effectiveness and impact on educational policy in the plural and highly unequal societies of Mexico and Central America. We proceed by first presenting the context of highly centralized mainstream educational provision, concentrated…

Significant changes are emerging which will notably impact the implementation and scope of both school administration and school counseling practices. The New York State Education Department, among others, is revising the requirements for administrative certification parallel to a robust reform movement on national standards for school performance…

This article examines a value-added model to rate schools, taking into account varying characteristics of students entering the schools, including poverty, race, mobility, and stability. The model uses regression to separate the influence of demographics that are outside the school's control from those under school control. This value-added model…

This paper examines the causes of pupil mobility and good practice in schools to address mobility issues. Pupil mobility is defined as 'a child joining or leaving school at a point other than the normal age at which children start or finish their education at that school'. The first part draws upon evidence of a survey, which explores the views of…