This paper examines the changing role of school leaders, in light of the current trend toward participative decision making. Executive Order 12871 mandates the formation of a partnership between unions and management, which will result in teachers playing an active role in decision making. Leaders, particularly leaders of Department of Defense…

National restructuring organizations are described in this paper, with a focus on those that work across districts to support multiple aspects of school restructuring, rather than within-district or state organizations. Data were derived from interviews with individuals in each program and from program descriptions and secondary sources. Section 1…

This book presents a vision of leadership at work in the schools of tomorrow. School-based examples are used to provide guidelines for developing core values and using them to guide decision making. Chapter 1 proposes a framework that opens the organization to five areas: participation; diversity; conflict; reflection; and mistakes. The second…

This paper uses feminist theory in exploring multicultural change in academic institutions of higher education. It argues that multiculturalism, while attaining increased acceptance in academic institutions, is actually being shaped to fit into the established organizational parameters without any discomfort to or real change within the…

This paper presents findings of a case study that documented the implementation of a portfolio assessment system in response to mandated program improvement and assessed its impact on teacher and student behaviors. The sample included elementary and middle school teachers and students from three Chapter 1 schools in a rural California school…

Without a deliberate emphasis on designing and using technology to improve the organization of schooling, even the best learning technologies will have limited long-term impact on our educational system. Research has identified two key conditions of good schooling: students can learn well when they are actively engaged with multiple resources and…

This paper presents findings from one in a series of four case studies that examined leadership in schools committed to reform. Methodology included onsite observation, interviews with stakeholders, and informal discussions. Hollibrook Elementary School, which serves a primarily minority population in Spring Branch, Texas, ascended from a low…

Ways in which roles are being redefined as school systems move toward organizational structures based on shared decision making are described in this paper. Specifically, teachers need training to function as effective decision makers and principals must learn to be instructional facilitators. Principals acting as facilitators must possess skills…

Questions that must be addressed to ensure successful implementation of financial delegation to the schools are presented in this paper. The features necessary to successfully introduce increased financial delegation to the schools are described. Key questions are presented to help readers evaluate their own plans. The questions involve the…

This book proposes that organizations must change their culture and that they must define what the new culture should look like. It states that the need to change the culture is a need to build a "development culture," which includes behaviors seen as desirable in employees and managers to keep organizations competitive in a rapidly changing…

The last few years have witnessed continuous power shifts in the information structure of organizations. As a result of these changes, end-user computing (EUC) has been growing at a tremendous rate. This paper discusses the three functions of Information Centers (IC) to support EUC in organizations: training, technical support, and control. A…

This digest examines the value of collaborations among businesses, community organizations, and educational institutions, and explores how partnerships create new opportunities and challenges. The benefits of collaborative efforts for community colleges include: (1) furthering access and services to local constituents; (2) bridging secondary…

A large state agency had been experiencing a variety of changes. The new head of the agency approached communication researchers about doing analyses of the effectiveness of communication in the agency. The researchers conducted two studies: a qualitative one to identify organizational and organizational communication themes, and a quantitative…

A comprehensive review of research and professional literature on the development of year-round education in the United States is presented in this synthesis, with a focus on policy implementation issues in California. The first part presents an overview of year-round schooling and descriptions of California legislative mandates. Next, a…

The public library in the town of Snowflake, Arizona, was administered for some years by a library technician under the supervision of a graduate professional librarian from the Snowflake Unified School District. When the technician departed, a decision was made to have the library board administer and run the library with the assistance of…