This paper and the invitational meeting for which it has been prepared make certain assumptions about the challenge of strengthening the quality of medication management in school. The participants believe that recent research on improving the safety and quality of patient care has relevance for health services in school, particularly the safety…

In 2004, the American Political Science Association (APSA) named a group of scholars to assess the current condition, problems, and options for improvement in political science graduate education in the United States. While the Task Force found that no single structure of graduate training could be appropriate for the wide range of institutions…

Significant recent discoveries within a number of scientific disciplines, collectively referred to as the science of complexity, are creating a major shift in how human beings understand the complex, adaptive systems that make up the world. A complex adaptive system consists of networks of large numbers of agents that interact with each other and…

Increases in delinquency and violence over the past decade are often rooted in a number of interrelated social problems that may originate within the family structure. The focus of this publication is the effectiveness of family intervention programs and chronicles one type of intervention, the Functional Family Therapy (FFT). FFT draws on a…

Technology and educational changes force educational systems to modify their infrastructure to offer new teaching services to the learning community. The aim of this research paper is to present an infrastructure from a broader systems perspective that helps educators understand the relationship between a Web educational system and its…

This digest reviews what instructional designers do, describes knowledge management, and indicates how knowledge management is influencing instructional design. The first section defines instructional design (ID) and briefly describes the ID process. The second section covers knowledge management (KM), including definitions of KM and systems,…

The Professional Development Leadership Academy supports states in transforming systems of professional development. This paper investigates accountability considerations that are necessary to determine the impact and results of professional development from a state systems perspective. The five areas of focus that comprise the Academy knowledge…

This monograph reports on a collaborative initiative between Four Oaks, a private nonprofit family service agency in Iowa, and the Iowa Department of Human Services. The collaboration provided a series of community forums of local representatives to examine services available to delinquent youth and their families, to increase community awareness…

This video discussion guide is intended for use in groups working toward large-scale systems changes in schools. It is designed to be appropriate for use in a three-hour workshop, an undergraduate or graduate course, or a training seminar. The guide and proposed workshop are both structured into eight sections. Recommended time allotment,…

Future leaders will have to rely upon skills that are far different from those used in the past. Action mapping serves as a meta-process for moving schools toward desired ends; it calls upon school leaders to move into action, to reflect upon such actions, and to collect stories for future reflections. This process could be helpful to a school…

Discusses the use of a set of experiments to provide undergraduate electrical engineering students with a knowledge of the state of the art in modern coherent optics from an engineering standpoint. (CC)

In an ideal educational system the relationships between all parts or components would be well defined, and every school and every subject area (business) and every course (clerical education) would enhance the system's objectives which are in accordance with the needs and goals of those the system serves. (Author/SC)

The importance of the systems concept is in its "management by objectives" approach. Outcomes are determined first, followed by assessment of input including student ability, available facilities and equipment, materials and techniques. An example applying the systems concept in an office practice class might be the preparation of a newsletter.…

A young, St. Louis, Missouri, architectural firm, seeking a personal style of practice, has succeeded in creating structures that reveal client input, and which are sensitive, articulate, and at ease with complexity. Describes an elementary school, a condominium, a shopping mall, a high school, and a "community mall." Illustrated with photographs…