Describes the author's experience as a classroom teacher working for six years on school reform as a member of her school's site-based decision-making committee. Discusses a sense of belonging to a professional committee, teacher-initiated integrated curriculum, frustration in coping with rotating principals, growing expectations to assess student…

Examines the Syracuse School District's custodial staff's efforts to simultaneously increase revenue, lower costs, and create a more healthful school environment. Tips for successfully transforming the custodial department from old to modern, efficient methods are highlighted. (GR)

The change process depends on acceptance, adaptation, and institutionalization of change by individuals, the school organization, and the community. This article presents a Change Process Model that helps principals visualize the steps toward meaningful change. This model encompasses a school's vision; stakeholder groups; necessary skills,…

Uses Eisner's educational connoiseurship approach to illuminate larger organizational design issues and analyze and appraise Virginia State Superintendent for Public Instruction Joseph Spagnolo's reorganization plan. The analysis focuses on several design issues: fit/form, focus/function, force, and fulfillment. The Spagnolo design is constantly…

Describes a pragmatic approach using cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT) to help correct parents' dysfunctional cognitions and strengthen confidence in parenting. Details three components of CBT: (1) focusing on positive behavior; (2) ignoring negative behavior if not dangerous; and (3) using special time. Notes that positive reinforcement is key to…

In the United Kingdom, only 22% of all information technology (IT) workers and only 4% of all IT managers are women. Initiatives to attract females to IT careers include exposure to computer-based activities at an early age through the National Curriculum. (SK)

Proposes that teachers who undergo accommodative change do so if they are internally motivated to learn; become aware of their implicit ideas and practices and critically examine them; construct alternative knowledge, beliefs, and practices; resolve conflicts between the prior and the new set of ideas and practices; and do so in a social climate…

Describes the use of small-scale change projects by Philadelphia's Department of Human Services to generate new outcomes and new skills and experience that improved basic day-to-day operations, strategic planning, and cumulatively produced larger-scale changes in service, financing, and performance. (Author/LRW)

Discusses the accelerating pace of change that librarians must cope with and suggests looking to the private sector for strategies to become more comfortable with change. Describes the five disciplines comprising the learning organization culture: systems thinking, personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, and team learning. (LRW)

Reports on the success of a second-language learning program designed to develop a European awareness in students in a school in England in the hope that it will serve as an inspiring example to promoters of similar programs. Notes that the effort in setting up a European program of development offers the advantages of working closely with…

Reviews key aspects of a change process in a Florida university's special education department. Describes core beliefs and values that underpinned the change process, the development of collaborative research groups (CRGs), and how CRGs have created linkages with other academic units and the community. (Author/CR)

Examination of problem-focused and solution-focused facilitation approaches used with functional and dysfunctional corporate groups found that both approaches were equally effective at increasing teamwork in functional corporate groups; that problem-focused facilitation was less effective with dysfunctional corporate groups; and that…

Although Americans still cling to the ideal of free public education, the broad mandate that once tied schools to this ideal and other social, economic, and political objectives is fading. Publics, created out of multitudinous self-interests, form via deliberation. Deliberative forums can produce an agenda for actions linked by a shared sense of…

Argues against community colleges opting for a quick fix in difficult times, a tactic designed for continuity rather than change. Adds that financial restrictions confronting community colleges call for drastic change in order to spur sustainable growth. Recommends five paths for strategic resource management and future advantage in the market,…

Examines processes and models of professional development that effect change in teachers' practices. Describes the study group process, the role of reflection, goal setting research, and collaborative writing workshop project results. Presents findings that support the research relative to the critical need for collegial collaboration. (SG)