To discover whether school districts can develop highly rationalized forms of instructional management, this study gathered data from a telephone survey conducted in the school year 1983-84 of administrators in 30 western districts. The instructional management practices of these districts were then compared with an "ideal type" of…

Maine law allows parents to arrange with local school boards to have their children educated outside a public or private school, if the student will receive "equivalent instruction." If the proposed program of instruction is "equivalent" within the meaning of the law, it must be approved by local school officials. Parents are…

If principals are responsible for implementing educational reforms, then criteria for effective leadership skills should be developed. This paper considers criteria for identifying effective principals and proposes a training and appraisal system. The paper discusses five domains that identify effective principals: (1) vision, (2)…

The purpose of this paper is to identify those programs and processes currently using the components, factors, and behaviors that have been described in the literature as characteristic of more effective schools, and to synthesize findings from these programs and processes carrying out effective schooling practices. Following an introduction,…

School administrators in the 1980's must learn to provide stronger instructional leadership to improve student achievement and restore public confidence in education. School improvement will occur, however, only as a result of changes in attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors. Only when teachers have worked out their own concerns regarding a given…

The extent of any community's citizen involvement in education depends largely on its administrators and school board. Pennsylvania's Long Range Planning for School Improvement identifies six reasons for desiring community involvement, including providing citizens the opportunity to understand school board operating plans and giving the board the…

Issues in the education of gifted and talented students from minority language groups are discussed, including the definition of giftedness and how it affects minority language students, the reasons for underrepresentation of this group in gifted programs, commonly used techniques for identification of students in this group, and the suitability…

The suggestions, discussions, examples, and tips presented in this handbook are intended to help educators improve their public relations (PR) and communications skills. The first of the book's six chapters introduces the need for a written communications policy, good PR, regular communications, and feedback from audiences. The chapter's…

In the spring of 1907, Homer Lane began his work with institutionalized problem boys when he became superintendent of the Boy's Home and d'Arcambal Association in Farmington Hills, Michigan. The program Lane developed at the school was geared toward building the boys' self-respect and self-reliance and toward giving them an opportunity to practice…

The state-of-the-art review addresses the problems faced by rural education in the area of curriculum development and suggests that mechanisms for curriculum development may need to be different or redefined to allow rural schools to operate at their maximum potential. The report looks at the positive and negative factors influencing rural…

The conference summarized here brought together participants from 12 public school districts and 34 observers from government agencies, foundations and community organizations. The attendees addressed the concern that the reform agenda of American public schooling is insufficiently sensitive to needy children who have dropped out of school or who…

This article illustrates the collaborative team process for inclusion as it grew within two schools attempting to improve their efforts to welcome students with disabilities into general education classrooms. Team members learned specialized skills needed for successful collaboration, in the context of bringing about specific changes they deemed…

The impact of the administrative climate, individualized instruction, and counseling to develop student internal control, was measured in this 1975 study against vocational program completion rates, individual locus of control expectancy, and academic outcomes of high risk students in developmental programs. All entering vocational students and a…

This book systematically considers governance in the community college, focusing on how decisions are actually made and describing the roles and interactions of all participant groups in the governance process. Community college governance today is an amalgam of procedures borrowed from colleges, universities and high schools, but there are signs…

Designed as an informational resource and planning document, this manual assists administrators in ensuring that district special education programs are in compliance with federal and New York State laws and regulations and that handicapped students are educated appropriately. Because Article 89 of the Education Law and Part 200 of the Regulations…