This packet is designed to help in the development of collaborative efforts for educational improvement. "Working Together with Others To Enhance Programs and Resources" (from the Center for Mental Health in Schools) is the first selection. This discussion emphasizes that effectiveness is the real point of collaboration, and it explores the…

This book offers a theoretical framework and practical guidance for creating professional learning communities in schools. It proposes to renew the capacity of the school as a whole to produce positive results for all children. Part 1, "Building Professional Learning Communities: The Cornerstones," discusses the concepts and assumptions…

Collaborative learning is receiving increased attention within educational environments. With increasing use of technology to support collaborative techniques it is critical that existing research in this area is expanded. This study was initiated to examine and explore the perceptions of students relative to experiences within two types of…

A team of graduate students and educational administration professors, as part of a field-based doctoral program, discovered the "split and fit" culture during an evaluation of the school's Continuous Progress Primary Program (CPPP). According to Pascale (1990), "split and fit" can work to an organization's benefit. Fit…

A 10-week program was developed to provide structure, consistency, and organization in the classrooms of 30 elementary-age emotionally handicapped (EH) students. The program sought to assist the students with staying on task, becoming structured, and reducing inappropriate behavior. The program contained two basic components (a behavioral…

The study described in this paper explored collaboration between elementary regular and special educators who were motivated by a schoolwide commitment to serve children with learning difficulties in the mainstream. All teachers at one school were invited to join in a collaborative problem solving format to handle student reading difficulties in…

The philosophy known as Total Quality Management (TQM) is frequently presented as a way to change and improve public education. This issue of "Focus in Change" examines Deming's original 14 TQM points and their application to education. Myron Tribus lays out the core philosophy of the movement and discusses its possible application to…

This chapter, from a guide for designing, implementing, and evaluating instruction and services for students with disabilities, acquaints the education administrator with the what, why, and how of interagency collaboration. System-level interagency collaboration involves joint planning, joint implementation, and joint evaluation between…

This final report of the Wisconsin Family-Centered Inservice Project describes the development, testing, implementation, and evaluation of an interdisciplinary inservice course for early interventionists and parents. The inservice course focused on attitudes, knowledge, and skills in four principal topic areas: (1) family-centered care, (2)…

New Mexico CURRENTS is an ongoing project that provides teams of educators from 11 elementary and secondary schools with culturally relevant humanities content and technical assistance in curriculum development and methodology. After being immersed in a rich knowledge base of New Mexican arts and humanities, the educator teams are expected to…

This staff training package was produced to complement a curriculum framework for assisting students with severe physical disabilities to make the transition to adulthood. The package is based partially on the experiences of a team from the North Nottinghamshire College of Further Education in England. Part 1 explores the concept of transition to…

Research on leadership for change should focus more on what leaders do and less on who the key leaders are. This study identifies a set of change leadership functions, including providing and selling a vision of change, obtaining resources, providing encouragement and recognition, adapting standard operating procedures, monitoring the improvement…

This study conducted a literature review concerning the use of teacher collaboration as a problem-solving process intended to provide educational services to students at risk and with disabilities. Various types of resistance to collaborative service delivery were grouped in the following categories: knowledge, skills, and training perceptions of…

This paper addresses issues and the viability of applying participatory management (PM) to education, with focus on Total Quality Management (TQM). Following a description of PM techniques with an TQM focus and a historical overview of Deming's management theory, four stages of team growth experienced during the implementation process are…

Instructional methods that seek to promote learning through student cooperation, rather than competition, are discussed in this handbook. Sections include an outline of the characteristics of cooperative learning techniques; a summary of research on the effects of cooperative learning on academic achievement, ethnic relations, mainstreaming, and…