Synopsis of a speech given by Geoffrey Holroyde, Director of Lanchester Polytechnic. (IRT)

Discusses the background and salient characteristics of Japan's educational reform movement. Until recently, Japan's formal education system was uniform, centrally controlled, and geared to developing character and cultural sensitivity. To counter uniformity, inflexibility, and an overly competitive examination system, schools are moving toward…

This article emanates from a study of urban school teachers and administrators and discusses metaphors for the kinds of management styles encountered at a variety of schools. The intellectual histories of each type of management style--machinistic, organistic, market place, or conversational--are described and their educational applications are…

Interviews with the heads of planning units in four Mexican universities at different stages of organizational development in 1982 and 1983 provided data for research on the relationship between organizational structure and adaptive performance. The findings suggested that universities that reorganize have better opportunities to adapt to external…

Between 1938-1980, the local administrative units of American education were transformed from small, informal community arrangements into large professionally run bureaucracies. This paper explores this structural change by analyzing variation among states in the speed and extent of school district consolidation. Consolidation stemmed largely from…

Examines the problems associated with maintaining ordinary senior middle schools (high schools) in China. Focuses specifically on the difficulties of paying equal attention to vocational and college preparatory programs. (BSR)

Research on effective teaching, combined with findings of the effective schools movement, is calling for teacher empowerment and new leadership opportunities for principals. This article describes a leadership pyramid embodying symbolic, cultural, instructional, and managerial functions. Principals will still operate at the top (symbolic and…

Instead of relying on largely unsuccessful partnerships between business and education, business needs to force its own agenda to help the U.S. regain competitive advantage in world economy. This article advocates free market choice; restructuring schools; professionalized, accountable teacher corps; higher academic standards; traditional values;…

Illustrating major points with specific examples (including a "Doonesbury cartoon), the main article faults schools' organizational efficiency and educators' ignorance of child development for forcing young children to work beyond their developmental readiness. An inset article presents the 19th century kindergarten as a haven for children to grow…

Discusses graded positions in Great Britain, emphasizing "scale posts" (teaching positions carrying managerial responsibility). Recent surveys reveal that most teacher-managers do not perform these roles effectively and may regard "scale posts" as rewards for classroom teaching. This paper relates differential salaries to…

Teachers in an Alexandria, VA high school formed the School Improvement Project to have a greater voice in the running of the school. They were surprised by the work the process demanded and by faculty members and administrators wedded to the old top-down structure. (Author/LHW)

Tells how a school district faced with financial difficulties developed a $2.5 million cost reduction plan that included consolidating positions and job descriptions without sacrificing programs or quality--and that ended in staff salary increases. (KS)

When the parents of school age children have significant relationships with their children's schoolmates, a particularly strong school-community relationship forms. Public schools in the United States are best organized to serve such functional, neighborhood communities, which are rapidly disappearing. School reorganization might renew community…

Presents an analysis of the concept of "teacher participation in school decision making," a set of empirically based hypotheses concerning the current scope and extent of teacher participation, and an outline for a systematic program of research that could provide information for policy development concerning teacher participation.…

Perceptive principals and teachers can use to their advantage the effects of peer pressure on 10- to 14-year-old children. Schools should provide these middle-grade students with clear expectations, predictable consequences for undesirable behavior, and frequent rewards for positive actions. Conclusions of research on grade grouping are…