Aboriginal people are not benefiting from the British Columbia school system, as evidenced by their poor performance on basic skills tests, overrepresentation in special education, and low high school completion rates. The British Columbia Human Rights Commission feels that Aboriginal students do not receive an equal education. Through research,…

A study examining school contributions to community development collected data from five rural Australian communities via interviews with school and community members, documentation from school and community sources, and observation. Preliminary findings from two communities suggest that in both, the school was a key player in building and…

An approach to assessment is described that allows students to understand and help decide the criteria for good work. It is called "negotiable contracting." Negotiable contracting makes assessment a highly individualized process that recognizes the subtly different ways in which students master skills. Students and teachers jointly create a…

A model of educational policy development is reported that is democratic without being egalitarian. It provides a process for gathering information from all interested groups in a school district to construct a policy that is uniquely suited to that district. It was designed to help a small committee construct a teacher evaluation policy for a…

Surveys have repeatedly shown that vast numbers of young people are interested in and concerned about environmental issues. Good youth work is concerned with the interests of young people, so the idea of environmental youth work--taking a youth work approach to environmental education--is a logical development for both environmental and youth work…

This study looked at teachers in their 2nd-4th years of teaching to compare their professional activities with what current studies indicate are teacher leadership behaviors and characteristics. The study sought to determine whether the University of Southern California's teacher preparation program taught the professional skills that elementary…

The Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990 mandates radical changes in curriculum, finances, and governance for all Kentucky schools and requires that all schools implement school-based decision making (SBDM). SBDM involves a cooperative problem solving approach to operational decisions. New York's Johnson City school district developed an…

This paper describes conditions and processes involved in implementing school-based decision making (SBDM), examining an outcomes-driven developmental model (ODDM) and describing the training components within Springfield, Missouri's and Kentucky's strategic plans. The Springfield Board of Education approved a plan to guide a schoolwide community…

The Sudbury Valley School was founded in 1968 by a group of Massachusetts parents who felt that a child is a person, worthy of full respect as a human being. It was intended that a nurturing environment be created in which the children themselves chose what they wished to do and scheduled their time. Democracy was a cornerstone of the school's…

A study assessed the teaching/learning environment of one professional development school in a variety of ways that included a combination of quantitative and qualitative measures. Results were analyzed using the eight scales of the "School Level Environment Questionnaire" (SLEQ) as categories: Student Support, Affiliation, Professional…

This document discusses community college governance. Because the challenges to governance are many, a solution to one problem could aggravate another and create new (and sometimes greater) difficulties for the college and those it serves. It would be better to have a full grasp of the problems before considering how they might all be solved.…

Focuses on behaviors and activities of three high school principals as they respond to district's decision to implement a shared decision-making model designed to give teachers and parents a larger voice. Describes these administrators' varying responses, along with varied ways democratic leadership was multilaterally defined in each school by…

Examines three assumptions that underlie the argument that shared governance must be reformed, and based on the professional literature and experience, counters them. The assumptions are that the bureaucracy appropriate for industry is appropriate for a higher education institution, democratic decision making undermines effective college and…

Surveyed 744 administrators and faculty at 248 colleges and universities concerning how faculty influence financial and policy decisions, how faculty satisfaction with the decisions correlates with faculty influence, how these decisions are made, and how authority and influence shift during a financial downturn. Results suggest faculty influence…

Describes the function of values and participatory decision making within the student affairs profession. Introduces a process model as a means of operationalizing values in the decision-making process and uses case studies to illustrate how the model can be used to improve student affairs professionals' decision making. (RJM)