In response to accountability pressures over the past several years, a body of research attempting to identify characteristics of effective schools has developed. Efforts to improve school climate or evaluate teachers solely according to "effective school" characteristics may be misguided. One problem is that school effectiveness may be…

Essential to the definition of an effective school is an operational definition of minimum academic mastery as the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and concepts that enable the student to be demonstrably successful in the next grade level in the same school or in any other school in the United States. An effective schools program, such as the one…

This paper, one of the nine-booklet Teacher Quality Series, offers guidelines for educational leaders who have the responsibility of making policy to improve the school as an organization in which teaching and learning take place. Various organizational schemes that encourage staff to share understandings and techniques, help each other to…

This book urges renewed public attention to the importance of teaching in high schools and to the complexity and subtlety of that craft. While our system of schools contains many consequential characteristics--for example, the subjects of the curriculum, the organization of programs for special groups--none is more important than who the teachers…

During the 1985-86 school year the Albuquerque City Center Schools and Rio Grande High School Cluster Project focused on student literacy skills, behavior, and attendance. A variety of activities and programs were initiated. Main components of the program were the following: (1) itinerant teachers worked with classroom teachers to conduct…

Case studies of five urban high schools illustrate some important factors that appear to be crucial in determining whether or not reform efforts are implemented. Among these factors are the following: (1) teacher participation; (2) collegiality among staff members; (3) shared belief that change can occur; (4) leadership by the principal; (5)…

Principals must have a clear sense of the mission of the school and a vision of what it can accomplish. They can be effective leaders by setting personal goals and regularly assessing personal achievements and by nuturing creativity in themselves and others. Personal qualities of effective leaders include the following: (1) self-management; (2)…

Information is provided on the Florida State University System's Indicators of Excellence Program and how it is evaluated. The 21 indicators of quality are used in setting annual goals for quality improvement, in justifying university budget requests, and in evaluating the results of the universities' quality improvement efforts. Some of these…

A study was conducted at Howard Community College (HCC) to determine employers' perceptions of the employment preparation and job training provided by HCC. Questionnaires were mailed to the employers of 38 1986 graduates, who had previously granted permission for their employers to be contacted. Study findings, based on a 68% response rate,…

This document reports on an evaluation of the second year of the Cincinnati Public Schools' Lowest Achieving Schools, Temporarily (LAST) Program, which provides financial assistance to seven of the lowest academically ranked schools in the district. This program was one of the results of the Bronson desegregation suit and all of the schools in the…

This document reports the status of accomplishment of the objectives of the Dade County (Florida) Public School system for fiscal year 1986-87. It is organized by 12 bureaus/offices representing the district organization during the 1986-87 school year. The district's comprehensive plan is developed annually through a systematic district-wide…

Four papers presented at the National Council on Measurement in Education meeting are critiqued. G. R. Mandeville and H. Heidari (1988), in a study of unusually effective schools, asked if correlations among cohorts of schools differ depending on the method of analysis used. It is suggested that it would be better to ask whether schools identified…

This handbook reviews findings from the research literature on effective schools to ascertain their relevance to Language Arts instruction, and to guide school administrators in their efforts to improve instruction for limited English speaking (LEP) students. The following chapters are included: (1) Introduction; (2) Principal as Instructional…

While educational researchers in recent years have sought new approaches to educational administration, educational administrators have continued to rely on ideals of efficiency, because efficiency provides a set of tools that they can wield in the internal politics of public education. This paper contends that the politics of efficiency in school…

This paper looks at effective schools research as it relates to classroom management in participating schools associated with Michigan's Upper Peninsula Effective Schools Professional Development Program--a staff development program based on effective schools research and designed to bring about school improvement. Effective schools research…