This paper describes school improvement through clusters (or leagues) of the Colorado Department of Education. School improvement clusters are defined as associations of schools and cooperating organizations dedicated to improving the quality of education. Participants work together with a common goal or unifying concept. The paper describes 14…

This first volume of a six-volume study details the historical context of a particular school district (code-named "Milford") in order to examine the genesis and evolution of American education. The study's key research documents were the district school board's official minutes; additional modes of inquiry included participant…

This second volume of a six-volume study updates and concludes the description of the historical development of a school district code-named "Milford," presented in volume I. Board minutes remain the primary source of data with increasing amounts of information from public documents, interviews, and observation of meetings. Following a brief…

The superintendent is the chief advisor to the school board on all matters relating to the meet and confer process, and he acts as the main channel of communication between the school board and the management team and the Certificated Employees Council. (Published by California School Boards Association, 800 9th Street, Suite 201, Sacramento,…

As teacher associations and unions have increased in number and strength, superintendents and education boards have had to devote more time to the process of negotiations. In the winter and spring of 1989, 400 questionnaires were mailed to a random national sample of school superintendents to examine the following areas dealing with negotiations…

Wisconsin has a local options competency-testing policy for public schools: participating districts receive state assistance, but are subject to regulations on test development and use. This paper examines influences on school district program adoption, focusing on local support for any testing program and superintendents' attitudes toward state…

A study examined the perceptions of Utah vocational agricultural teachers regarding the current and expected role of state and local supervision in agricultural education. The target population for the study was all agricultural science and technology teachers in vocational programs during the 1988-89 school year (64 teachers). Through persistence…

The study described the issue of classification of Schedule C classified personnel in the Mesa Public Schools (Arizona). This schedule consisted of 393 primarily clerical employees. Since 83 separate job classifications existed within a 30-grade salary schedule, the major concern was whether classification and reclassification of personnel in this…

The legal obligation of Ohio school employees to report situations of suspected child abuse and neglect has generated a need for school districts to adopt a written policy together with guidelines and procedures to assure school personnel are aware of the mandate to report and have a structural procedure to do so. The written policy should: (1)…

Three separate studies of three different school superintendents are reported on in terms of the effect of leadership styles on organizational cultures. The analysis used nine descriptors derived from Schein's comprehensive description of leadership in the conduct of organizational culture creation. The report is based on historical and…

Of the total population of 29 black female superintendents in the United States, 22 participated in this study. Interviews included highly structured and semistructured questions concerning the career and success patterns, circumstances that affected their present status, and the future role of black women as chief administrators of public school…

This study investigated the degree of teacher evaluation policy implementation in Alberta, the events that influenced teacher evaluation policy adoption, and the variables that affected the policy implementation process. The first phase of the study was primarily qualitative, using semistructured interviews with selected key decision-makers and…

Chapter 6 of a revised volume on school leadership, this chapter defines and explains management teams and describes several successful examples of team management. Superintendents have come to rely on their management team's expertise to resolve increasingly complex policy, administrative, and instructional issues. Although team management has…

The study examined whether or not research is being put into practice to select the best and the brightest for the position of principal and attempts to categorize ways in which discrimination occurs by identifying whether hiring agents discriminate against certain kinds of candidates. Specifically, three kinds of bias are examined: (1) gender of…

This manual is intended to be a how-to guide for school district leaders who want to begin using a school-based approach to improve the quality of education in their districts. The manual provides a brief review of the school-based improvement process--what it is and the rationale for using it. One section deals with implementing school-based…