As the Houston (Texas) Independent School District decentralized decision making and exchanged a culture of compliance for one stressing professional performance, they made corresponding changes in management. To attract a new breed of administrators, the district offers higher pay for higher job expectations (and less job security), via…

About 5 to 15 percent of teachers in 2.7 million public-education classrooms are marginal or incompetent. Assistance plans offer structure, purpose, and remedial help. Plans have six components: definition of the problem, statement of objectives, intervention strategies, a timeline, data-collection procedures, and final judgment. (MLH)

Examines parental expectations of their children's teachers through use of the Expectations of Teachers questionnaire. Participating parents (N=765) reported greater expectations for help and assistance, followed by teaching competence and fairness on the part of the teacher. Mothers were found to hold higher fairness, help, and assistance…

A study assessed the predictive value of kindergarten teachers on 234 pupils for later first-grade academic achievement. Ratings of academic performance were significantly correlated with scores on outcome measures on math and reading ability. Results indicated high overall accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and negative predictive value of the…

Examined Israeli secondary school teachers' beliefs regarding low-achieving students and instruction in higher order thinking. Interviews indicated that nearly half of the teachers considered higher order thinking inappropriate for low-achieving students. Their beliefs related to their general theory of instruction. Viewing learning as…

Presents a model for changing human and organizational behavior. Highlights include behavioral dynamics; expectations; alignment; organizational structure; organizational culture; individual skills and training; leadership; management systems; developing corporate-level goals; communicating goals to the organization; and developing employee goals.…

Low predictability (ability to identify what events will be happening in the future, when, with whom, for how long, and with what outcomes) may be associated with increased problem behavior among children with disabilities. This paper describes strategies for assessing stability and predictability in a school or community context, and using the…

Tested the predictive power of self-efficacy expectations of physical capabilities, expectations of pain, and expectations of reinjury on physical function in chronic back pain patients. Before assessment of function, patients rated their abilities to perform essential job tasks--functional self-efficacy (FSE)--and the likelihood working would…

Neglected children need teachers who are not judgmental, moralistic, or easily shocked; who listen, understand, and recognize their own fears and prejudices; and who enjoy interacting with children and define their work as eliciting effort and growth. (SK)

Examined influence of child's sex on mothers' expectations about their 11-month-olds' motor development. Found that mothers of girls underestimated their performance on the novel task of crawling down steep and shallow slopes and mothers of boys overestimated their performance. Girls and boys exhibited identical levels of motor performance during…

Describes a classroom demonstration that uses daily horoscopes to show the effect that expectation can have on judgment. Addresses the preparation, procedure, and results of the demonstration, and student evaluations. States that the demonstration appears to be effective for teaching students about expectancy confirmation. (CMK)

Addresses teachers' feelings of dismay, perhaps even disgust with the work of their students. Concludes that how educators talk about students reveals what they think about themselves as teachers; and how they think about themselves as teachers reveals how they think about higher education and its role in enacting democracy. (SG)

Describes a study that maps the performance of entering undergraduates on secondary school level mathematics items, compares the actual student performance with that estimated by practicing teachers, and identifies the level of agreement demonstrated by the teachers regarding expectations of student performance. (ASK)

Describes a study of interactional troubles occurring between citizens and 911 calltakers. Analysis of recorded 911 calls, dispatcher notes, training and procedural manuals, and interviews suggests that many routine interactional troubles relate to a mismatch between the callers' and the calltakers' frames of reference and the fact that each party…

Confidence and trust are very important in effective school communities and reform efforts. Effective teachers have confidence their students can learn, and trusting students believe their teachers will not betray them. Through the relationships of respect, confidence, and trust a learning environment can be transformed into a genuine learning…