National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data included in America's Challenge: Accelerating Academic Achievement, indicate the scope of the task of reaching the National Goal for Education on Student Achievement and Citizenship. This discussion guide focuses on the five corollary objectives of the National Goal, which are to: (1)…

This guide describes program elements considered essential to any successful collaboration between families and schools. Initial contents offer a brief discussion of the basic types of parent involvement and the benefits of and barriers to effective parent involvement programs. The guide then focuses on ways to insure that necessary program…

This document suggests an agenda for restructuring New York City elementary schools and improving their leadership, based on interviews with 25 inner-city elementary school principals. Participants were selected on the basis of their competence and their commitment to the education of economically disadvantaged students. The following policy and…

Effective crisis management as a function of the chief school administrator's role is examined. A new professionalism and recognition of districts and schools as complex organizations facilitate administrators' ability to handle this enlarged responsibility. Chapter 1 identifies forms of school crises and offers explanations, drawing upon…

The effect of leadership styles of school administrators on teacher evaluations of their job performances is examined in this paper. A secondary focus is a comparison of teacher characteristics and their effects on administrator evaluation. A principal evaluation survey was administered to 120 Chicago public and nonpublic school teachers,…

This pamphlet provides suggestions for school administrators concerning how to best use and interpret educational research. Research and evaluation can provide educational administrators with information necessary to make and justify decisions about programs, testing, and teacher performance. Administrators must remember that: abstracts and…

This study examines variables that affect staff development in rural schools. It examines systematically delivered rural staff development intervention in 28 rural schools in five states representative of the Southwest--Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas. The study, involving 700 teachers, tests 18 hypotheses based largely on…

This chapter of "Principles of School Business Management" discusses the implications of several court cases for legal issues affecting the role of the school business official. The issues addressed include civil rights, negligence, contracts, criminal liability, tuition and fees, and student records. The chapter opens with a brief overview of…

Catholic education is a ministry of the Catholic Church and a primary means of evangelization. The ministry of development, an integral part of Catholic education, is basically one of developing people and helping them to grow. The chief administrator is pivotal in this ministry and is responsible for quality Catholic education, sound business…

This paper reports on a: (1) review of recent literature on the principal's role in the implementation of educational reform, and (2) study of teacher perceptions of the role of the principal in the implementation of recent Texas reform legislation. Research on societal and organizational change shows that the inevitability of change should be a…

Problems in supervision stem from the reality that operationalizing supervision is not a cognitive state of mind, but one in the affective domain, contrary to most techniques. Administrators often discover that the interpersonal skills needed in facilitating change and dealing with resistance are not available. This paper outlines a process that…

This administrative and instructional guide offers information and recommendations for computer design techniques based on literature sources and school district applications; design of micro- and mini-computer systems is intended for those with little or no experience. Chapter 1, "Planning for the Computer System: Choosing Purposes and Parts,"…

This handbook is intended to serve as a guide for governing the operation and management of the Volunteer Management Support Program (VMSP). Outlined in the section on program guidelines are the structure and operations of the VMSP. The remainder of the guide, which deals with volunteer guidelines, explains VMSP volunteer responsibilities,…

This monograph surveys the literature relating to the role of the principal as change agent and the process of educational change, and reviews those characteristics that research has found to make principals more effective and efficient change agents. The introduction identifies four relevant perspectives in the research on instructional…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 13 titles deal with the following topics: (1) speaker turns between staff and foreign clients at an employment agency; (2) the communication of norms in an effective organization; (3) industrial strategies and the…