Current efforts and methodologies to evaluate vocational education programs are plagued by a number of problems. Included among these are the following: disagreement over the primary role and function of vocational education, too great an emphasis on summative and product evaluation as well as on labor market outcomes as indicators of program…

The changing role relationships that occurred between the faculty and administrators of a university that implemented a decentralized management process over a 5-year period are discussed. The university changed from being highly centralized toward a shared and layered administrative approach. Five changes were instituted: an extensive committee…

Ways to use strategic planning to enhance leadership in continuing education organizations are discussed in this collection of 12 papers. Paper titles and authors are as follows: "Why Continuing Education Leaders Must Plan Strategically" (Robert G. Simerly); "The Strategic Planning Process: Seven Essential Steps" (R. Simerly);…

The conceptual level of teachers was measured in relation to their preferences for support in the supervisory tasks of staff development, curriculum development, and instructional improvement. It was hypothesized that teachers at a high level of conceptual development would prefer to be more involved with others and more flexible in adapting their…

Utilizing data from 31 applications for financial assistance from Johnson-O'Malley (JOM) Indian Education Fund for the 1980-81 school year, the study examined the influence of Indian Parent Advisory Committees (PACs) over school curricula and activities supported by JOM funds in Washington State. Applications were surveyed for information relating…

Based on recent school effectiveness literature, this paper suggests local policies to stimulate and facilitate school reform. After discussing the goals of the effective schools movement and briefly reviewing the literature, it presents a two-phase model for school improvement projects, based on the premise that a school's culture primarily…

This paper synthesizes data from two studies of educational change to describe how school contextual factors influenced teacher involvement and how principals reduced those influences. The first study, involving 14 schools representing a mixture of levels and types of areas served, began in 1979 and spanned 3 school years; the second study, which…

The Community Advisory Committee (CAC) is a strategy to involve the community in active participation in the development, amendment, and review of the local plan for special education. The CAC originated under the design of the California Master Plan for Special Education. The CAC brings together and supports parents and professionals, regular and…

This paper deals with the impact of recommendations in the Carnegie report ("A Nation Prepared: Teachers for the 21st Century") on administration in schools. The Carnegie report gives a bold new outline for improving teachers' roles in the schools by greatly strengthening their decision-making role and advocating a much more…

The current debate on educational reform includes many proposals to increase teacher participation in decision-making in order to make school policy and management more responsive to local needs. This paper argues that policy goals for teacher involvement should be geared to helping school staff, both teachers and administrators, meet the needs of…

This report defines and describes an advanced model of school-based management in Prince William County, a suburban district considered to be part of the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. It documents the shift from a "top-down" to a "bottom-up" school-based management approach based on input from parents, teachers,…

The MetroLink project supported and studied the process of collaboration for human resource development in American metropolitan areas. The project was conducted in 1984 and 1985 in the following eight metropolitan areas: Atlanta, Georgia; Boston, Massachusetts; Hartford, Connecticut; Indianapolis, Indiana; Louisville, Kentucky; Minneapolis,…

Although most attempts to effect school reform have been initiated from the top down, an alternative paradigm of educational reform has emerged: the idea that educators in schools must become empowered agents in their own school improvement processes. This paper explores this new paradigm, arguing that schools are both the objects and arenas of…

In this booklet, one of a series intended to apply economic principles to major social and political issues of the day, it is argued that government regulation of business has produced disappointing results, as evidenced by the steady rise of inflation rates in the 1970's, continuing unemployment, declining labor productivity, and increases in…

Teachers are primarily motivated by intrinsic rewards such as self-respect, responsibility, and a sense of accomplishment. Administrators can therefore boost morale and motivate teachers to excel through participatory governance, inservice education, and systematic, supportive evaluation. (TE)