This report by Wyoming's Blue Ribbon Committee on Quality Education focuses on four basic recommendations through which student preparation could be improved. First, the elementary, secondary, and college curriculum in the state needs to be better defined and integrated. Second, educational processes must make more effective use of available…

This booklet, prepared by the Wyoming Department of Education, lists roadblocks that impede the development of young people and suggests measures to be taken by the family, the community, and the schools to remove them. Data on youth involvement are given for Wyoming and for the United States on the following topics: (1) dropping out of school;…

Previous studies of unusually effective urban schools have focused on school characteristics considered influential in the schools' success, but few provide specific guidance for improving achievement in other schools. This study sought to describe organizational processes and arrangements within elementary schools implementing the Chicago Mastery…

A study of Michigan's Copper Country Intermediate School District was undertaken to identify ways nine small secondary schools with declining enrollments could increase educational opportunities for students by cooperative sharing. The 6-month study included analyzing data on each school, identifying factors which might constrain cooperative…

Beginning with the observation that educators are faced with rising public expectations, declining resources, and increased public criticism, this paper describes a six-fold model for determining how staff development is operating and how it can be made to operate more effectively, in a self-renewing manner. The six dimensions consist of the…

The advantages and disadvantages of the year-round school fall into three major categories: financial, educational, and professional. Financial advantages are based on the postponement of construction costs and the use of existing school facilities and equipment to serve a larger number of students. Financial disadvantages include a rise in…

The importance of school organization and its impact on teachers' commitment to staff development has been highlighted in recent research. In schools that are favorably disposed toward staff development, the norms of "collegiality" and "experimentation" prevail. Staff practices fundamental to the creation and maintenance of the…

Institutional effectiveness can be defined as the extent to which internal priorities coincide with the priorities of the external groups that provide funding and support for the institution. If a lack of congruence exists between these priorities, a college administrator has the options of attempting to change the values of the external groups or…

The instructional delivery system of traditional school practice consists of fixed time, single opportunities for learning a vague-referenced, variable, and private curriculum. While a minimum competency testing program ensures that academic standards are criterion-referenced, fixed, and public, the time allotted for learning may still be fixed.…

Many activities are currently going on to improve the quality of teacher education, which ultimately will improve the quality of elementary secondary education. Studies on school effectiveness have led to programs encouraging collaboration and cooperation among educators, redefinition of educational policies, planning for declining enrollment,…

Appraisal of a school's relative effectiveness is complicated by: (1) the need to control for input differences; (2) measurement error in input measures; and (3) small sample size within schools. This study compares the performance of two successive cohorts in 19 schools in a small midwestern city on the five Iowa Tests of Basic Skills using both…

Instructional leadership for principals is not a panacea for the ills of education. Efforts to alter principal practices to meet this poorly defined and poorly researched construct reflect a lack of self-reference in the educational field. More study and thought are needed before plans of action are imposed. (BJV)

Addressing the underlying tension that generally exists between school-level autonomy and systemwide uniformity, the author's nine commandments include recognizing the school as the key organizational unit in public education, selecting and nurturing first-rate principals, and granting more budgetary authority to the school level. (JBM)

Major reports on education in 1983 have helped make education a top priority again. Such achievements as a renewed focus on teaching conditions and curriculum are countered, however, by a misguided search for panaceas and ambiguous federal support. The continuing debate on education should be conducted within a global context. (JBM)

Using the yardsticks of independence and equality, an analysis of the literature on youth from a citizenship perspective can track youth's citizenship status and capacity to become full citizens. For young people, education is an avenue to either exclusion or independence and equality. For example, dropouts are more likely to live in poverty, and…