Many practitioners and policy makers view personalized school environments as a means to promote student commitment to school and engagement in learning. Personalization also rewards teachers and encourages their commitment and accountability. A personalized environment is the product of deliberate, strategic choices about organizational…

Examines the experience of the University of Western Sydney - Nepean (Australia) in the context of 1989 restructuring of the Australian system of higher education since 1989. Notes the institution's efforts to leave the larger university including the removal of faculties and deans and development of an ongoing process based on a culture of client…

During a summer retreat, administrative staff at a Columbia, Missouri, middle school discussed the logistics of moving half of their students to a new facility during the middle of the academic year. This team-building effort helped form bonds that sustained administrators, teachers, and students during a difficult year. (MLH)

This study assesses the relative importance of environmental, intraorganizational, and contextual factors that explain the process and outcomes of organizational learning in six Manitoba schools. Based on the data provided by 265 teaching staff and their principals, the present findings verified that transformational leadership, supportive school…

Framed by organizational socialization, this qualitative study examines the use of a formal arrangement of mentoring to socialize prospective school administrators. Participants were eight interns paired with eight principals from three school districts. Our ethnographic approach solicited an insider's view of mentoring based upon participants'…

In 2006 and 2007, two workshops on teaching work-family courses were held at the annual meetings of the American Sociological Association. This article examines the current challenges and strategies of teaching work-family, as identified by workshop participants, and the resources that are available through the Sloan Work and Family Research…

Researchers have identified ninth grade as one of the most critical periods of time for intervention to prevent the loss of motivation, failing grades, and dropping out of school. This Information Capsule is concerned with the efficacy of ninth-grade centers or academies which isolate ninth-grade students into separate school buildings or in wings…

Anthony Bryk is president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Previously, he held the Spencer Chair in Organizational Studies in the School of Education and the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University as well as the Marshall Field IV Professor of Urban Education and Sociology at the University of Chicago. Dr.…

This review aims to demonstrate that a great deal of a school's success depends on which areas of school life the educational leader chooses to spend time and attention on. It calls for more research and policy attention to be given to the career paths of school principals in order to meet the challenge of identifying and developing the next…

The changes taking place in education require of teachers an unprecedented professional re-orientation and growth. Much of this can be done effectively only by a collective effort within the school. Staff development, including the induction of probationary teachers, is the organizing of a systematic response to these many changes. (Author/IRT)

Author discussed the efforts to redesign Boys High School, an all-male, academic school located in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, N. Y. (Author/RK)

In a study of the mainstreaming practices of a large urban school district, schedules of 844 mildly handicapped elementary students were examined. Schedule appropriateness was defined by three factors: assignments of handicapped students to a fixed group of regular students, to a grade-appropriate group, and for the full sequence of scheduled…

This paper examines a project involving teams of teachers, school administrators, and district-level people from Coalition of Essential Schools (CES) member schools. The CES is a high school reform movement devoted to strengthening the learning of students by reforming each school's priorities and simplifying its structure. The common principles…

Using an analysis of data collected by the National Survey of Health and Development, this research report studies the relative importance of ability, social class, sex, and type of school on the performance of children in the educational system of England and Wales. Conclusions suggest that reorganization of educational institutions can have…

A systems approach to school organization should define the role and function of the elementary school principal as a middle manager. (Author/DN)