Chapter 8 of a revised volume on school leadership, this chapter defines school climate and suggests ways to improve the learning environment at the school building level. School climate is defined as the feeling an individual gets from experiences within a school system. More specifically, climate is the composite of norms, expectations, and…

This pamphlet reviews five recent research studies that focus on various key aspects of school climate, a popular metaphor that is difficult to define, measure, or manipulate. "The Search for School Climate: A Review of the Research," by Carolyn Anderson, surveys the full scope of school climate literature, concluding with a summary of…

The Administrator Professional Development Program, sponsored by the Howard University Teacher Corps, began in the spring of 1978. Its participants include principals, assistant principals, and one special education director from a low socioeconomic area of Washington, D.C., and a university facilitator. The goals and development activities of the…

Organizational design for change of teacher education institutions should focus on the shaping of political activities through forums, arenas, and courts. Forums provide the medium for expression and competition of alternate ideas in the institution, and arenas are the medium for achieving group objectives through cooperation, contest, or…

This publication is fifth in a series of technical assistance papers intended to assist Federal agency personnel in the design and implementation of executive personnel management programs. This document focuses primarily upon team building, one of a variety of techniques of organization development designed to improve the way in which work is…

Local school districts must strengthen their innovative capacity in order to respond effectively to the problems facing them. Success depends on both an organization's technical capacity to match problems with appropriate solutions and its political capacity to move an innovation through the process from adoption to incorporation. Research shows…

This paper describes an ongoing effort by an interdisciplinary team from a large urban university to extend and improve the mental health services in a 23-county rural area. The model is presented as the collaboration of professionals from different geographic and working environments with different professional expectations and goals. Aspects of…

An external evaluation of the Small College Consortium (SCC) was designed to evaluate and make recommendations for linkages between the delivery of technical assistance services and progress toward institutional development. The case study component of the SCC evaluation for 1978 was undertaken as two separate but complementary analyses. The two…

Reported is the development of a set of behavior anchored scales (BAS) for evaluating the job performance and technical updating activities of engineers. A total of 327 engineers and technical supervisors participated in the various phases of this project. Separate groups: (1) identified 11 factors related to job performance and technical…

The self-interests of the primary participants in the school and the common welfare as represented in the improvement of the American educational system are most likely to become one in the process of improving the school as a work place. This strategy was explored in the form of a collaborative enterprise. Eighteen schools in southern California…

This collection of articles indicates much about the state of organization development (OD) and its application to education. Organization development, as an intervention theory and method, is an iterative process including six sequences of events: entry, data collection, diagnosis, intervention, evaluation, and withdrawal. The articles included…

This book describes a practicum project that analyzed the organizational structure of the regional service teams at the California State Department of Education and designed a strategy to reduce the organizational problems caused by consolidating application procedures for seven state and federal categorical aid programs. The practicum design…

Dealing specifically with the social science research role in rehabilitation facilities, this monograph addresses the development of research as it occurs within service organizations. It examines the research role from the perspective of both the person in the role and the host organization. The second chapter describes the development and…

Economic decline is indicated by productivity per man-hour of work, per capita real personal income, and real gross national product. Unless new technology overcomes the force of a stable population and develops new sources of raw materials and of energy, economic decline seems a likely possibility. Creative management is a process of planning,…

Attempts to answer the question "What does research say about getting innovations into schools?" are based on the experiences of a nonprofit organization that has been engaged in staff development efforts to bring about change in schools. The paper presents a general description of the organization's operation; its relationship to other change…