A profile of the female college president in 1978 was developed by examining demographic and professional characteristics, career patterns, and role definitions of 35 women heading 15 two-year institutions and 20 four-year institutions. When only majority responses for all presidents were considered, results indicated that the woman college…

It is suggested that college administrators' actions do not necessarily need to follow from what they say. Assumptions of rigidity of organizations, heterogeneity of managers, clarity of objectives, and instrumentality of action are viewed as inconsistent with experience and tending to lead theorists astray. Modifications in assumptions of…

A random selection of superintendents in Texas school districts with student populations of 500 to 50,000 was surveyed and a search made of the literature to determine the desired characteristics of those in the role of assistant superintendent of instruction. The information collected showed preferences concerning the field of specialization,…

Chapter 8 in a volume on school leadership, this chapter is a revised version of "Communications in the Open Organization." It offers suggestions from a number of authorities for administrators who want to learn how to communicate more effectively with a variety of groups within and outside the school. It begins by explaining the human…

Three issues concerning educational policy making are examined in this paper: (1) Who has the power to affect major policies in Canadian postsecondary education? (2) How does a shift in power affect educational policy making? and (3) How can institutional management best respond to this power? After presenting a rationale for its focus on power,…

The director of a freshman writing program must establish a position of quiet but firm power. Only if a director starts with authority, money, and intelligence, can he or she hope for lasting and beneficial change in a college writing program. The director should also have a commitment to teaching writing. Dedication to such a task requires…

The college planning processes at Piedmont Virginia Community College (PVCC) are described as they were initiated and have developed over the past two years. After acknowledging the biases of this case study, the paper explains how formal planning at the college grew from a need to coordinate staff projections for program and facility needs into a…

Three conditions have led to the current state of curriculum development: a lack of accurate conceptualization of and general consensus on the major constructs of curriculum development, a lack of leadership among educators to engender effective curriculum design, and a lack of specification in the roles of superintendents and principals who must…

Twelve chapter-length case studies of schools that participated in the Research and Development Utilization (RDU) program are presented to illuminate change management issues. The report is intended for use either as a text or as a book of readings for school professionals. Each chapter is accompanied by questions that are suitable for group…

The roles and responsibilities of school boards and superintendents are different, but linked. School boards are primarily concerned with establishing policy and representing the educational interests of district constituents. Superintendents are charged with translating policies into administrative practice and with providing professional…

Outside factors have changed the role of the school superintendent, leading to alterations in the personal qualities and job expectations that superintendents should have. The outside factors include increased public access to government, new public representatives, more independent political activism, less deference to authority, and a loss of…

The document contains 13 selected papers from a conference on working with gifted students. Titles and authors include the following: "A Metacurriculum for the Future" (B. Hubbard); "Building a Curriculum to Train Leadership Abilities" (L. Addison); "Gifted Boys, Gifted Girls--What's the Difference" (B. Becker);…

The new board member will always have concerns about his/her forthcoming trusteeship, such as determining how much time he/she is willing to devote to the job; how he/she should obtain orientation for the job; and what he/she should know about the controversial issues in which the board has previously been involved. In addressing the first of…

The most prominent component of successful schools is a motivated teaching staff, with the principal as the key. Motivation is an intrinsic drive toward the fulfillment of personal needs and the improvement of one's perceived status. Teachers who are aware of Abraham Maslow's "Hierarchy of Human Needs" are better able to set personal…

The concepts of data base administration, the role of the data base administrator (DBA), and computer software tools useful in data base administration are described in order to assist data base technologists and managers. A study of DBA's in the Federal Government is detailed in terms of the functions they perform, the software tools they use,…