Extends research on factors promoting or undermining school effectiveness. Employs two dimensions of effective internal organization (teacher community and principal leadership) to examine effects of school context variables generally excluded from prior research. Explores whether models of context effects on internal school conditions differ for…

Summarizes British educational input-output analysis research, highlighting the extension of Michael Rutter's findings in "Fifteen Thousand Hours" (1979) by Steedman (1983) and Hough and Warburton (1986). Smith and Tomlinson's study of 3,000 children in 20 multiracial urban comprehensive schools found important interschool differences in…

Describes how Prince George's Community College developed an institutional research-based approach to accountability reporting in response to Maryland's statewide accountability requirements. Offers specific examples of the application of institutional research data to the development of accountability plan objectives. Identifies several issues…

Explains how the North Central Region's Commission on Institutions of Higher Education certifies quality and encourages improvement. Traces the evolution of the commission's emphasis on assessment, highlighting its "Statement on Assessment and Student Academic Achievement," the essential elements and implementation of an assessment…

In 1988, Indiana adopted a system of performance-based accreditation for its public schools. This article summarizes a study to describe the program's planning and implementation processes, evaluate program effects, and determine whether relationships exist among successful school improvement and planning and three elements identified in the…

This article examines why pupils' perspectives should be considered in development of residential school services and explains how pupils' perspectives can be accessed. Findings from a study of two British residential schools for boys with emotional and behavioral disorders found that the elements of schooling most valued by students were respite,…

Explores 194 principals' role perceptions, expressed in guided interviews conducted by educational-administration graduate students. Principals described planning procedures as collaborative and said priorities were shaped by school or student results on objective success indicators. Ensuring school safety, good teaching, and effective community…

Schools attempting to transform themselves by adopting desirable characteristics generally fail because they have skipped a long, difficult self-discovery process involved in becoming effective schools. Leadership may be as simple as knowing oneself, envisioning alternative realities, being persistent, and building everyday relationships. (MLH)

Distinguishes between the different 'themes' of educational reform in developing countries over the past 30 years: (1) planning/management and efficiency reforms; (2) quality reforms; and (3) curricular reforms. Discusses planning/management and efficiency reforms and quality reforms in detail. Provides references. (CMK)

Explored the beliefs of parents, teachers, and administrators regarding characteristics of effective elementary schools. Data from searches of journal articles, textbooks, and online materials indicated that though there was much variability in effective school characteristics, many effective school indicators were consistent across the three…

A study conducted in an Illinois metropolitan school district explored four dimensions of school-based management implementation: school leadership, school climate, student achievement, and community involvement. Survey data from 176 teachers, 42 parents, and 6 administrators revealed that length of program involvement positively influenced…

Describes the experience of administrators, teachers, and students in the first two years of Silver Oak Elementary School, a new school with technology-rich classrooms in San Jose, California. Highlights technology planning, problems resulting from technology use, parent involvement, teacher technology training, district envy, and teachers…

Assesses the "value added" by schools to the academic progress of students aged four to seven years. Finds that gender, socioeconomic background, English-as-a-Second-Language, and school composition affect student achievement. Notes that raw, as opposed to value-added, results can give misleading impressions of a school's effectiveness.…

Argues that in debates about the value of preschool in the United Kingdom, there has been no clear distinction between the appropriateness of different education and care settings for young children's learning and the effectiveness of different curriculum models. Examines findings on curriculum content and features of teaching and learning.…

Nationally, rural students in grade 8 outperformed their nonrural counterparts on the mathematics section of the 1996 National Assessment of Education Progress. Fourteen states had significant rural-urban differences in mathematics achievement, but seven favored rural students and seven favored nonrural students. This pattern was related to six…