Debunking popular reform efforts, this book argues that education reformers are fighting a fruitless uphill battle. Neither top-down regulation nor locally based reforms will transform schooling. The insurmountable problem is juxtaposing a continuous change theme with a continuous, conservative system that defies change. In partnership with all…

This paper reports on the restructuring efforts and activities undertaken in Virginia Beach from 1991 to 1994. The district has begun a massive effort to downsize, reorganize, and restructure the organization to focus on shared decision making and student performance. A special effort has been made to build coalitions among employees, with the…

Drawing from a national survey of 9,000 community and technical college department chairs in the United States and Canada, this book offers insights on the personal characteristics, responsibilities, challenges, and strategies of chairs. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the study, including information on its rationale and purpose, instrument…

Schooling has long reflected a bureaucratized, assembly line organization. The National Governors' Association has advocated a systematic restructuring of schools to increase student learning. This paper has four goals: (1) to define school restructuring; (2) to suggest how principals, teachers, and students may forge new relationships; (3) to…

Changing the school environment to enhance student motivation and achievement is described in this paper, which focuses on broad structural change within the school. Current motivation theory is applied at the school level for lasting school reform. A collaborative project among university researchers, school leaders, and school staff in one…

A task force from a high technology company recently conducted a nine-month study to determine the attitudes of older workers toward work, management, technological change, and productivity. Data were gathered from personnel files; an age audit was undertaken, and 4,000 employees were randomly interviewed. The workers were asked to offer opinions…

The literature relating to educational change produced over the past 2 decades is extensive, informative, and wide-ranging. Accordingly, this bibliography consists of books, articles, monographs, reports, and related publications pertaining to change as manifest in educational settings. Although the academic area of educational administration is…

Instructionally, schools tend to be "weakly normed" organizational systems in which teachers bring relatively little pressure upon each other to change and/or improve their classroom performance. Because teachers tolerate a wide range of behavior among their colleagues and are reluctant to offer criticism of each other, those responsibile for…

The role of integrators, individuals who facilitate communication and understanding, in facilitating the use of computer technology was explored, based on five case studies. It is suggested that a major obstacle to successful academic computing is getting faculty and students to use available computer resources effectively. In addition to helping…

Summarizing the full report of a study by the same title that originally appeared in five volumes, this document is divided into four sections. Section I critiques and clarifies the values, goals, and assumptions of Organization Development (OD), a change strategy for organizational self-development and renewal adapted from business settings and…

The changes required by many school reform policies address problems that are extremely difficult to clarify, with organizational and environmental factors densely intertwined. Accordingly, this document begins by identifying the "four C's" that must be taken into account if any strategy for school improvement is to succeed: complexity,…

Population, economic, and technological changes will all affect the ways in which Canadian community colleges operate. The rise in the number of seniors, a slowing birth rate, and the aging of the "baby boomers" have influenced the demographics of college clientele. The dynamics of the global marketplace require a highly educated and…

In recognition of the twenty-first anniversary of the Virginia Community College System (VCCS), this essay reflects on the history and accomplishments of the system and considers its future as a mature component of Virginia's culture. First, the early years of the VCCS are examined, highlighting initial efforts to deal with the increasing demand…

What many educators see as the assistance of a program evaluation is often an intrusion into the governance of the program being evaluated. Redistribution of authority and control occur not only because evaluation findings support one constituency more than another, but the very act of evaluating affords protective status to the initiators of the…