Each year, students at State University of New York community colleges are surveyed regarding their general characteristics, reasons for attending their college, and perceptions regarding their college. This report provides results from five sections of the spring 1994 survey of Westchester Community College (WCC) students and includes comparisons…

This project was designed to solicit parental perceptions of Caroline Street Elementary School (Saratoga Springs, New York) in terms of Effective Schools, a method of assessing school improvement. Families (n=334) were asked to provide their perceptions regarding correlational characteristics identified as vital to successful school programs:…

A study was conducted at Miami-Dade Community College, in Florida, to determine the level of satisfaction with college programs and general perceptions of their college experience among students who applied for graduation during 1991-92. Completed questionnaires were received from a total of 3,764 students. Study findings included the following:…

This paper examines the consequences of principals' graduate training in educational administration for school effectiveness and asks: Are schools led by administrators with extensive, formal preparation more effective than schools led by principals with little or no graduate training? The data were derived from the School and Staffing Survey…

Although educational researchers are beginning to recognize the influence of organizational culture on organizational productivity, the term "organizational culture" has been defined from a variety of perspectives. This paper presents findings of a case study that investigated the cultural characteristics of a junior high school recognized for its…

This review of current research on parents' opinions about public schools provides information of interest to school boards, administrators, and parent leaders who wish to develop parent-community-school partnerships. This article discusses research done by organizations like the Public Agenda Foundation, the Gallup Poll, Phi Delta Kappa, and the…

Today, the division of large schools into subschools or subunits is often recommended as the answer to a number of problems in education. This paper examines the several forms of school-downsizing efforts and the somewhat diverse purposes for which they are being established. The data come from a review of literature and an evaluation of 22…

Prepared in response to a Florida legislative mandate requiring the development and implementation of institutional accountability goals, this report presents the goals adopted by Pensacola Junior College (PJC), the college's plan of action, and data on progress made as of 1992-93 on the goals. Following an introduction, the first part presents…

Research seeking to evaluate the effectiveness of SBM has been complicated by the complex policies and practices that have been implemented with great variation. Given this difficulty, this book presents findings of a study that sought to understand the ways in which school-based management (SBM) actually operates in a school recognized for its…

Prepared as Book One of a focused evaluation report submitted to the North Central Association (NCA), this document describes activities undertaken by New Mexico State University's two-year branch campus at Carlsbad to respond to concerns and suggestions from a 1992 NCA site visit. Following introductory materials on the process used to prepare…

School-effectiveness research has not yet been able to identify the factors of effective and noneffective schools, the real contribution of the significant factors, the true sizes of school effects, and the generalizability of school-effectiveness results. This paper presents findings of a meta analysis, the Dutch PSO programme, that was used to…

In Victoria, Australia, every government school in the state is a self-managing school. The Victorian system of school-based management is called "Schools of the Future." This paper presents findings of a study that sought opinions of the school community toward various aspects of the Schools of the Future program and its outcomes. A…

Over the last several years, state boards of education have become increasingly engaged in the development of content and performance standards and the assessments that will accompany them. This guidebook provides information on the move toward standards-based education. Part 1 provides a brief historical overview that places the standards…

The problems involved in reversing ineffective schools have begun to engage researchers, policy makers, and practitioners. This paper conceptualizes the extent to which ineffective schools have to be understood as "different" from schools with other levels of effectiveness, and speculates which types of improvement strategies are most…

School-effectiveness research is constrained by ambiguous factors of effectiveness and a lack of theory. This paper presents findings of a study that used simulation to improve school-effectiveness theory. Simulation is also used to explore the direct effects of schools on individual learning. After introducing simulation models, the paper…