Schools have a yearly rhythm--changing with the cycle and demands of the school calendar. There is the Season of Hope as the school year starts; then comes homework discontent, conferences of concern, grading and testing crises, newspaper attacks, worries about burnout, and the search for renewal. In keeping with all this, the material compiled…

This cross-sectional study used primarily quantitative methods to investigate the superior achievement of 4th- and 5th-grade students at Alaska's Kenai Peninsula Borough School District who as young elementary students had attended K-2 primary school, compared to peers who had attended a K-6, K-8, or K-12 configured school. Since this study was…

This chapter discusses three emerging national trends that could serve as catalysts for fundamental change in student services programs. First is the concept of the learning organization, which offers a superior model for enhancing the effectiveness of institutions and the people within them. Second is the movement away from standardization and…

In 1991 Australia's National Industry Education Forum released a policy statement that suggested ways to improve Australian schools. This report, an outgrowth of that statement, contains a blueprint for the decentralization of management for Australian schools. Studies were undertaken in 11 companies to draw lessons from business and industry.…

This dissertation is based on the ideas that: (1) metaphor is essential to the conception of and life in organizations; (2) the dominant organizational metaphor of life within universities, particularly from an administrative perspective, is Newtonian/mechanical; and (3) a metaphoric perspective grounded in chaos theory might be helpful in…

Considering the science teacher's role in the implementation of environmental issues in school, a survey was carried out (Benetti, 1998) to identify science school teachers' perspectives regarding environmental education-related activities in fundamental schools (11 to 14 year-olds). The interviewees' statements were divided into four categories…

Across the United States, School/Community-Based Management (SCBM), also called site-based management, is gaining support. The effects of SCBM in some Pacific-region schools are detailed. SCBM arose in response to mandates giving decision-making powers to the people who have to carry out educational initiatives. One evaluation of SCBM…

This paper examines transformational leadership, defined as follows: an influencing relationship between inspired, energetic leaders and followers who have a mutual commitment to a mission that includes a belief in empowering the members of an organization to effect lasting change. The article presents the results of a qualitative and quantitative…

This paper focuses on school-level differences and their implications for educational policy reform. It presents studies of two distinct educational reforms--a local community-based collaborative-services initiative and a state educational-accountability program--to illustrate important organizational features that vary across school levels. Both…

The chief purpose of this study has been to determine what existing forms of American secondary-school organization are of greatest promise. The study has sought, in particular, to discover the effects of the junior high school movement upon practice in school organization, to secure objective evidence as to the comparative merits of reorganized…

The writer's intention is to sketch out a general statement about an approach to rearranging within secondary schools. (Author/RK)

The geography of schools in Mississippi have undergone many phases of change during the past three decades. Racial segregation in schools and patterns of resistance to change have been influenced signigicantly by residential segregation at the local level and by the racial composition of the population at broader scales. (RJ)

Discusses the Directed Learning Program in Hempstead, Long Island, one of 13 compensatory education programs across the country recommended for emulation by other school districts by the ERIC/Information Retrieval Center on the Disadvantaged. (Author/JM)

Investigation focused on the conceptual modification of professional and bureaucratic role conceptions which accompanies passage from education student to public school teacher. (Authors)

Study sought to determine the effect of the form of school organization on pupil attitudes, achievement, conceptual maturity, and classroom behavior. (Authors)