Birmingham-Southern College has surmounted major problems of enrollment, finances, and mission by adding and expanding career-related curricula and selected adult and post-baccalaureate offerings, reaffirming and finding new applications for its original liberal arts mission. (MSE)

A postsecondary degree or credential is increasingly important in the U.S. economy, both for new entrants into the labor force and those already employed. Working adults who want to succeed in this economic climate are pursuing a college education in increasing numbers. Adult students have unique needs that differ from traditional-age, residential…

Effective building leadership and time utilization are important to the success of implementing change. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to describe the experiences of an urban junior high school principal involved in a collaborative change effort. Specifically studied were the principal's actions, behavior, communication, and…

This theoretical paper explores the nature of narrative by examining its key characteristics as a communication tool and an independent mode of thought in the form of a literature review. The first section describes stories or narrative. The second section establishes links between narrative, change, and learning through the concept of…

This report takes a global look at the structural changes taking place in the 72 small schools that were created from 17 comprehensive high schools in Washington State. It also discusses the challenges conversion schools face when they operate with a foot in two worlds -- trying to realize the benefits of small while, in many ways, still operating…

In October 2006, the Superintendent of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, asked the Council of the Great City Schools to examine the district's human resources division and to provide: (1) High level review of the division's organizational and administrative structure with recommendations for improvements; (2) Assessment of the effectiveness of…

The current status of diversity initiatives in eight U.S.-based multinational corporations was examined through a process involving semistructured interviews of diversity managers and analysis of their annual reports for fiscal 1996 and related documents. The 8 corporations were randomly selected from the 30 multinational corporations in Illinois.…

Educators must prepare students for jobs in the information workplace; as employees, they must recognize advantages of the changes to their future employment and adopt new approaches to teaching. Restructuring the organization around information is something that is now being, or will have to be, done by all businesses. A worker's primary…

The concept of secondary schools as learning organizations is being examined as part of a research project involving South Australian and Tasmanian secondary schools. The authors defined learning organizations as schools that: employ processes of environmental scanning; develop shared goals; establish collaborative teaching and learning…

This text describes how human service personnel can best determine the desires of consumers with disabilities and how human service agencies can provide optimal support. This book is a synthesis of knowledge about the outcomes of the lives of people with disabilities and how human service agencies operate. While the first area of concentration is…

This document contains three papers from a symposium on change and the consultant that was conducted during a conference on human resource development (HRD). "A Theory of Consultancy" (Daniel R. Boroto, Douglas A. Zahn, Darren C. Short) presents an emerging theory of consultancy that is based on an analysis of thousands of videotaped…

This paper traces the history of person-centered planning in programming for individuals with disabilities. It begins by describing the context shared by the first four methods of person-centered planning to emerge (Personal Futures Planning, Individual Design Sessions, Getting To Know You, and Twenty-Four Hour Planning) and some of their…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the systemic change process and strategies used by key stakeholders within a local education agency when they changed from the traditional discrepancy model for learning disabilities identification to the Response to Intervention (RTI) model. The results of this study suggest that the change to…

Utilizing "Social Indicators" (1979), discusses growth and distribution of schooling in the U.S., trends in student test performance, and major organizational changes in elementary/secondary education. Comments on quality of available data and suggests improvements for future reporting of educational indicators. (Reprint of article is available…

Presents moral development as consisting of reasoning and action. Analyzes it from the perspective of small-group processes and behaviors. Discusses the bureaucratic and authoritarian nature of the school system and suggests it mitigates against moral behavior and reasoning. Concludes that schools should promote moral education toward action.…