Attempted to determine type of school organization that most benefited ninth-grade students. Results from ninth graders in junior high schools (n=771) and in high schools (n=825) indicated that ninth graders in the junior high school setting participated significantly more in extracurricular activities and achieved significantly higher…

Discusses the need for new organizational designs in schools that are restructuring with emphasis on the role technology can play. Topics discussed include improving communication; redundancy skills that educators need; learning to learn; using technology to support variety and diversity; barriers to using technology in restructuring schools; and…

The need for a micropolitical reference frame in educational research is critiqued. The six articles discussed illustrate the stratified structure of statuses in school organization that have the character of a caste society as their defining polity feature or essential governance attribute. (RLC)

Large school size adversely affects attendance, school climate, student involvement. Dividing large schools into small units creates a learning and teaching context that is more stable, intimate, supportive, interdisciplinary. Kohn-Holweide, a comprehensive German secondary school, groups all students at a given grade level with the same teachers…

A survey of educational-administration students revealed 10 factors influencing teachers' reluctance to move into administration: nature of work responsibilities, working conditions, emotional aspects, district location, superintendent reputation, effects on home life, quality of community life, community support, salary/responsibility issues, and…

University of Illinois early-childhood-education professor discusses trends in teachers' roles in the United States and internationally, and reasons for the lack of change in ways teachers function and the manner in which schools are organized. Also explores reasonable and unreasonable roles expected of teachers, society's expectations of…

Discusses international cooperation in addressing educational issues. Topics addressed include global changes; the impact of technology on society, including changes in organizational structures; changes in educational practice, including higher order thinking skills and school organization; cultural differences; and activities of the…

Describes the cooperative efforts of corporations, foundations, organizations, institutions of higher learning, and community support that transformed a church into one of the first charter schools in the state of New York. Describes the process, offerings, and continuing challenges of the King Center and asserts that it is a model of…

Historical data are presented to show that teachers and schools are affected by the financial incentives of the systems in which they operate. Economic pressures have forced schools in competitive markets to meet the needs of families, while centralized bureaucratic systems have been coercive and pedagogically stagnant. (Author/SLD)

Educational portfolios can happen, even within extremely incompatible organizational structures. When designed in accordance with four principles (opportunities for meaning-making, interactions with people who matter, assemblage over an extended period, and a supportive presentation context) these projects can be transformative and profoundly…

Describes the process and preparation for making teacher-requested changes at Notre Dame High School (New Jersey). Narrates the planning that went into making the change to block scheduling, which includes an activity period and double-period class schedule, and discusses the impact of that change on in-service preparation for teachers. Concludes…

Reviews principal theoretical developments in the study of schools as organizations, particularly neo-institutional theory and analysis of faculty workplace. Discusses a theoretical approach integrating these developments including institutional constraints on schools, administrative responses to them, and networks of informal faculty ties.…

Data from a large school district in the southwestern United States were analyzed to investigate relations between student and school characteristics and high school freshman dropout patterns. Application of a multilevel logistic regression model to student dropout data revealed evidence of school-to-school differences in student dropout rates and…

The most important date in the Boston University Chelsea Partnership was not the day in 1989 when the initial partnership agreement was signed. Nor was it the date in 1997 when the School Committee voted unanimously to renew the partnership for five additional years. If an objective history of the Boston University-Chelsea Partnership were…

This article provides an evaluation of the rationale for, and impact of, setting with English classes in the second year of secondary school in one Scottish authority. The Council's education department has a long-standing policy of mixed-ability classes in English for the first two years of secondary school (S2). A number of schools approached…