The Virginia Beach (Virginia) Public School Division, which has a fairly large student population of 55,500 students, has enjoyed strong community support over the last 2 years for its newly instituted comprehensive curriculum assessment and development project. The project's goal of attaining educational improvement in all areas from kindergarten…

This study investigated the use of teacher perceptions of school effectiveness variables as part of the Pennsylvania state assessment program and briefly reviewed the teacher survey instrument development. Data were available for 155 of the 500 school districts from the 1985 Educational Quality Assessment administration. A norm sample included 111…

This report attempts to answer criticisms that have been leveled against existing research on effective schooling. The research reported has three important features: (1) it is based on a major national survey--High School and Beyond (HSB)--with longitudinal information on each respondent; (2) measures are not restricted to verbal and quantitative…

This technical manual describes the School Assessment Survey (SAS), a multidimensional questionnaire that uses teachers' perceptions to measure key organizational characteristics of a school. Developed to take advantage of recent developments in organizational theory and school effectiveness research, the SAS instrument can be used to identify…

This review summarizes the rapidly growing body of findings on the social and organizational environment of teaching and examines one innovation--the collaborative school--that offers promise of an organizational context more conducive to effective teaching. Chapter 1 characterizes the actual conditions under which teachers work, focusing on…

This annotated bibliography was prepared to serve as background material for the writing of the synthesis paper "From Isolation to Collaboration: Improving the Work Environment of Teaching." Items were selected to represent the range of issues that pertain to the social and organizational context of teaching. The selected materials…

The characteristics of a proposed basic skills instructional program that would involve all staff in a junior high school are described in this report. Basic skills are defined as ideas needed throughout life. Planned for the 1982-83 school year, the program is aimed at creating an environment for effective school change. Activities in seven…

This study evaluates pre- and inservice training of business educators in Connecticut. Data from a questionnaire returned by 820 of 912 business teachers in Connecticut indicated that over 60 percent of them received their undergraduate training in the state. The teachers indicated that general professional education courses were not worthwhile,…

To help classify and map the field of administrative inservice, five generic administrative inservice models may be identified and their strengths and weaknesses determined based on what is known about effective inservice practices. The models are a traditional model, institutes, competency-based programs, the academy, and networking. A review of…

A study examined the perceptions of employers in the aircraft maintenance industry regarding the effectiveness of recent graduates of Federal Aeronautics Administration (FAA)-approved maintenance schools. Of the 100 employers who were contacted, 68 returned usable surveys. Based on responses, it was concluded that the views of employers in the…

Present and past efforts to enhance school efficiency have failed. Progressive Era reforms of a half-century ago contributed to the creation of a publicly insensitive, professionally dominated education system. Accountability enthusiasts of the '70s failed to understand the fundamental misalignment between the assumptions underlying private sector…

The Southern Regional Education Board's (SREB) Making Schools Work (MSW) initiative works with clusters of high schools and their feeder middle grades to raise student achievement in rural areas. MSW is based on the belief that all students can complete an "advantaged" curriculum, although some students may require more time,…

This publication, one in a series, is intended to bridge the information gap between what the research says and what actually transpires when various programs and reform initiatives are implemented in schools. This particular publication presents 30 questions to 5 participants of the Distinguished Principal Fellows program. The questions are…

Recommendations are presented for a new form of school governance in British Columbia that takes into account current research on effective schools. In the model described, the provincial government provides the funding, sets the core curriculum, standards, and outcomes, ensures standardized measurement and reporting, and supports field research.…

Arguing that summaries of 562 studies from 1985 through 1994 reveal that almost no attention is paid to the cognitive effects of Head Start programs, this report criticizes Head Start as being steadily and more generously funded without evidence that it helps children's scholastic achievements. The report criticizes available studies as practicing…