Recent studies indicate that Americans have lost faith in public schools. Polls trace a steady decline of confidence in the educational system, a decline extending over the past two decades. The general trend masks two anomalies, however. First, several indicators associated with increased confidence in the schools are on the rise--students…

This paper describes a quantitative approach to the study of the culture and improvement of schools. The School Cultural Elements Questionnaire (SCEQ) was developed to measure the aspects of the interpersonal relationships among school staff, which were expected to affect schools' instructional programs. The SCEQ measures six elements of school…

This paper describes why and what transformational leadership is needed to pursue school effectiveness and development in the rapidly changing education environment and in the coming new century. The paper first discusses the challenges to school leadership and the need for new leadership in light of the pursuit of school effectiveness and the…

Which comes first: achievement or self-esteem? This question is at the heart of an important educational controversy. Traditionally, public schools thought that students' satisfaction followed on the heels of academic success. In other words, children who performed well in class consequently felt good about themselves. But more recent educational…

A composite behavioral indicator of high school effectiveness was developed that measures the degree to which schools strike a balance between the press for academic excellence and the need to keep all students actively engaged in schooling. This proposed "participation" indicator is based on behavioral outcomes with demonstrated…

The context of teaching has changed dramatically in the wake of two national waves of educational reform. This dissertation examined the relationship between elementary principals' use of transformational leadership strategies as determined by teacher reports and the presence of social-organizational factors within the schools. The five…

In recent years, new economic pressures have been placed on community colleges as a result of increased expectations for accountability on the part of governing bodies and the public. In responding to these pressures, colleges must consider new approaches to management, while the tools and approaches developed in private industry can provide…

This book is designed to help the school administrator optimize support services for a successful school. Chapter 1 describes how to foster school quality through community and staff involvement. Chapter 2 shows how to schedule and configure the school for achievement, particularly for meeting the diverse needs of diverse students. The third…

An index to the problems and solutions discussed in the the first 9 volumes of the 10-volume series, Successful Schools: Guidebooks to Effective Educational Leadership, is provided in this handbook. This "troubleshooting guide" lists topics in alphabetical order, describes the issue, and lists the corresponding volume and page number. (LMI)

Outcomes of Project A+, a school-based improvement (SBI) partnership developed between International Business Machines (IBM) and the Austin Independent School District, are described in this document. SBI is a vehicle for restructuring schools to meet the goal that all students will function successfully at or beyond their appropriate grade…

Thirty-eight teachers completed the Illinois Quality Schools Index Survey, which measured teachers' attitudes towards characteristics of quality schools. The majority of the teachers felt that the characteristics indicative of a quality school were often implemented in their school. Over half the teachers felt that their schools often or always…

In the introduction to this book, a classroom situation is described in which the story of Hansel and Gretel was challenged. He uses it to describe an educational reform effort undertaken by the Lakeview School in British Columbia, Canada, and shows how the school changed from within. The book documents the struggle of the teachers and the…

This paper reports the results of an investigation into the relationship between school size and achievement. The study examined the impact of school size on mathematics achievement in Dutch, Swedish, and American secondary education and on science achievement in the Netherlands. The following research questions were explored: (1) Is school size…

An overview of the achievements and limitations in British school effectiveness research is provided in this paper. In contrast to educational research conducted in the United States, school effectiveness and school improvement disciplines in Great Britain have only begun to emerge within the last 13 years. Topics discussed in this study include…

Government pressures for universities to demonstrate greater efficiency while maintaining the quality of their activities have resulted in a range of performance indicators being adopted. However, questions of quality in teaching, learning, and research are hardly addressed by these indicators. Instead, more tangible measures of input and output…