A national study of superintendents reveals that most superintendents (89.6 percent) consider their relationship with the community to be very important, and most (63.5 percent) spend a great deal of time on that relationship. There is a positive correlation between the importance superintendents assign to their relationship to the community and…

The three diagnostic dimensions of the Concerns Based Adoption Model (CBAM) are tools that can evaluate the degree of new program implementation at the classroom level. Implementation success is a function of use/nonuse, appropriate/inappropriate practice, and user concerns about the innovation. These dimensions: Levels of Use (LoU) of the…

Productive board meetings entail well-planned agenda, effective chairpersons, and on-task focuses which avoid extraneous issues and fruitless, time-consuming discussions. Members should understand the agenda's chief points beforehand or be prepared to make pertinent inquiries which administrators anticipate. Tips for chairpersons include keeping…

Principals wish to foster both staff motivation and student achievement in their schools, yet research reveals a seeming contradiction between these two goals. Fredrick Herzberg found in the late 1950's and 1960's that in various occupations, employees' motivation depended primarily on their sense of: the significance of their work, achievement,…

Language research over the past two decades has revealed that language is not something children "acquire," but rather a system they build. A key factor in this linguistic construction is children's interaction with parents or other caregivers. The studies reveal further that children's repeated interactions with books and stories and…

Environmental differences for speech departments at large and small colleges are not simply of scale; there are qualitative as well as quantitative differences. At small colleges, faculty are hired as teachers, rather than as researchers. Because speech teachers at small colleges must be generalists, and because it is often difficult to replace…

The policy-making and administrative roles of trustees and presidents are distinguished. The level of policy at which trustees should operate is dependent on the college's size and complexity and whether it is public or private. Trustee responsibilities of soliciting funds and selecting a president are acts of implementation in pursuit of a…

The importance of human and political factors in college planning is emphasized by a veteran faculty member and administrator. Three examples are cited, based on experiences at California State University-Northridge; West Virginia University, and the community surrounding the College of the Virgin Islands. One "real world" factor that…

The mentoring of new teachers has proven to be an effective strategy in helping novice teachers succeed. This essay provides an overview of mentorship and suggests concrete, research-based techniques for implementing a mentorship program.

The author of this handbook maintains that substantial school improvement can take place only within an orderly environment. To achieve a positive educational climate, he lists numerous suggestions to handle school discipline problems. Individual chapters cover conducting a campaign against crime and violence, handling discipline problems…

Questionnaires were sent to 373 administrators in West Texas school districts with less than 500 students. The purpose of the study was to survey small school administrators' interest in leadership training through inservice education; to explore the areas of such interest; and to determine the preferences for type, location, and duration of such…

The booklet presents a number of alternative educational approaches for gifted and talented students. Five chapters cover the following topics: characteristics of the gifted; identification; program development information and resources for enrichment, grouping, acceleration, and guidance programs; teacher selection and training; and communication…

The second of two issues addresses topics related to mainstreaming of handicapped children. Considered in nine articles are the following topics: the administrator's role; legal issues involved in the least restrictive environment specification of P.L. 94-142, the Education For All Handicapped Children Act; parents' and teachers' views regarding…

The universality of administrative functions and tasks is sufficiently established to make special preparation programs for any one group of higher education administrators unjustifiable. This thesis is based on research undertaken to determine if significant differences existed in the functions or tasks performed by presidents, vice-presidents of…