The School Improvement Program (SIP) is a project which involves over half of California's public elementary and secondary schools and which emphasizes cooperative planning by schools and communities to improve education. The improvement planning process in each school is undertaken by a School Site Council (SCC), composed of the principal, and…

A brief pamphlet highlights the findings of the "Pennsylvania Profile of Education Project" and gives broad recommendations for the improvement of public education in the state. The report emphasizes and elevates the important role of the teacher in the pursuit of quality education. Among the recommendations are the following: (1)…

The school Assessment Survey (SAS) is a validated instrument that both assesses school conditions and provides useful feedback for staff. The SAS is organized around nine key organizational dimensions identified in the literature: (1) Goal Consensus; (2) Facilitative Leadership; (3) Centralization of Influence: Classroom Instruction; (4)…

Use of time was investigated in program evaluations conducted by a school system's department of research and evaluation. All evaluation designs developed in the department's bureaus for the 1983-84 school year were examined, and key staff coordinating each evaluation bureau were interviewed. How time was scheduled in each design, and then how…

Principals wish to foster both staff motivation and student achievement in their schools, yet research reveals a seeming contradiction between these two goals. Fredrick Herzberg found in the late 1950's and 1960's that in various occupations, employees' motivation depended primarily on their sense of: the significance of their work, achievement,…

Analysis of the available data suggests that New York's elementary and secondary schools, taken as a whole, compiled a good record of achievement during the 1982-83 school year. Three kinds of test data were analyzed. One was the result of a study which involved the collection of scores on three commercially available standardized tests: the…

The involvement of process consultants can ease the development of strategies for increasing school effectiveness. The process consultant does not function as an expert in education, but facilitates development of an effective planning team consisting of the principal and four or five faculty members. The consultant first determines whether the…

The current research on the "characteristics of effective schools" suffers from a lack of any sound theoretical foundation. In order to establish such a foundation, researchers used the methodology of clinical analysis to determine the goals, purposes, and beliefs underlying the overt behavior patterns found in the effective school…

Nearly forty monographs, papers and journal articles are abstracted in this review of recent literature on instructionally effective schooling. The works, most of them published since the mid-1970s, focus on various aspects of urban, minority, and compensatory education, as well as on more general issues in elementary and secondary educational…

The capability was studied of each of three models for producing indices that will reproduce school effectiveness rankings established a priori through simulation. The models used were a within-group regression technique, a regression model using individual scores, and a regression model using means. Data for 54 hypothetical schools on input, SES,…

This collection of essays concerning recent research on pupil achievement focuses on the role of teachers. The papers served as the basis of discussions during a day-long conference in February, 1970, at the Office of Education. Topics included models of school effectiveness, teacher quality, teacher attitudes, and policy implications. While the…

The purpose of this study was to compare five methods of computing school effectiveness indices (SEIs) from longitudinal data. The methods were within-school regression, within-school regression corrected for the unreliability of measurement, mean difference scores, average individual residual scores, and school residual scores. The sample…

Examines the focus of 10 recent reports of importance to elementary principals and provides editorial comments on each. Categories of the reports include the following: schooling, Department of Education initiatives, literacy, teachers, and school effectiveness. (IW)

Students' standardized test scores do little to gauge school program effectiveness. This article suggests that improving the data for monitoring schools, accounting for schools' varying financial picture, and relating outcomes to features capable of being changed will enhance program evaluation and school management. Some state efforts in this…

Northeast Missouri State University's redefinition of its mission a decade ago led to a value-added assessment program that has been effective in guiding decision making and producing significant institutional change. (MSE)