Explores current influences on educational managers' work, lightheartedly adopting the language of phenomenology and describing the "cult" of two gods of mismanagement. Discusses these gods in terms of their myths, practices, main adherents, structures, beliefs, and spiritualities, evaluating how these characteristics afflict management practice.…

Discusses results of 3-year study of the leadership of the principals of 4 Ontario secondary school involved in the Change Frames project, requiring each school to initiate change using each of 7 frames--purpose, emotions, politics, structure, culture, learning, and leadership. (Contains 18 references.) (PKP)

Describes the reaction of Northeastern University when it was surprised by a major decrease in enrollment. Discusses the change process, including the involvement of the board, faculty, staff, and students. Describes major improvements that evolved from the crisis and how the involvement of all university segments made a difference as the…

Presents the Comer Model as one way to educate immigrant students. Details model components: parent team, school planning and management team, school staff support team, school improvement plan, staff development, assessment and modification, and guiding principles of collaboration, consensus, and no fault. Asserts that the program can help…

Chronicles an education reform battle of the 1920s in which teacher activists within the Milwaukee Teachers' Association emerged as champions for their students. They challenged a proposal that the school system experiment with platoon schools, which applied the efficiency of the business world to education. Their challenge offers insight into…

Developed elements of a transformational change framework through case studies of 6 institutions over a 4-year period. Three key findings were: (1) five core strategies for transformational change; (2) the characteristic that makes them essential: sensemaking; and (3) the interrelationship among core and secondary strategies, the nonlinear process…

Four conceptions of and approaches to systemic change are statewide, districtwide, schoolwide, and ecological. State and district approaches value expert opinion and narrow groups of stakeholders. School-level approaches value school autonomy. An ecological systems approach values broad, meaningful participation and the change process itself. (SK)

Addresses the lack of success in educational reform efforts using metacognitive analysis of the basic linear assumption of most current reform efforts. Suggests a different nonlinear theoretical orientation and perspective for understanding reform efforts, and contrasts the two approaches in two examples of educational reform: learning/curriculum…

Considers the opinions about the communication department as perceived by the author's colleagues both from the communication department and from other departments. Reflects his academic inferiority complex in response to those opinions. Suggests a return to more a basic, primordial attitude--one which demands "continuity and change," but which…

Discusses issues addressed at the 94th annual convention of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, including changes in how coaches recruit athletes, changes in types of athletes recruited, offers of more money for needy athletes, changes in the organization's governance, and more money for colleges. (DB)

Discusses how one Early Head Start program has benefited from collaborating with researchers. Notes that the program has clarified its theory of change, reflected on effective strategies, and trained staff on practices during home visits. Asserts that by using information about the quality of home visits, the program now provides better services…

Student mobility is associated with lower achievement and test scores and affects teachers, parents, and classmates at both departing and receiving schools. Some districts, like Fort Wayne (Indiana) Public Schools, calculate mobility and stability rates for accountability purposes. A sidebar outlines tips for promoting mobile students' gains. (MLH)

Discusses how considerable credit for the quick rise of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) as a research university goes to president Freeman Hrabowski, III and Mark Behm, vice president of administration and finance. Describes how they grew UMBC's research program, rebuilt the administrative infrastructure, and expanded the…

Every year there is a substantial flow of people into teaching roles as entrants or as movers from one school to another. Each such move involves attraction of the person to the job. Data for 1999-2000 reveal several important findings about teacher staffing. In 1999-2000, out of a teaching workforce of about 3.45 million, there were about 535,000…

Even before the nation's governors convened in Washington in March 2005 for a national summit on high schools, many already had proposed plans to make secondary education more rigorous. In this article, the author discusses how governors and legislators in 12 states take steps to put more rigor into high schools. Noting that current state…