Purpose: Intermittent attention to the district as the unit of study has left a void in our understanding of the complexities associated with the ability of district-level leaders to contribute to successful, systemic educational reform. In this article, the authors address this void by providing a narrative synthesis of previous findings,…

Purpose: Extant reports on states' policy differences are mostly descriptive and largely ignore the pervasive role of political culture on their educational policy-making processes. This article examines the effect of policy culture on states' policy-making mechanisms. There is evidence that a state's political culture is a significant mediating…

Purpose: This article focuses on the sustainability of reform through the lens of teachers' nostalgia--the major form of memory among a demographically dominant cohort of experienced older teachers. Unwanted change evokes senses of nostalgia for these lost missions that take two forms: social and political. As teachers age, their responses to…

Discusses the nature of recent calls for educational reform in the context of the historical role of superintendents in the development of the public school movement. Provides a case study illustrating how one metropolitan school superintendent facilitated educational innovation and solidified his own organizational power within his district. (34…

Presents findings from studies that provide guidelines to policymakers and administrators on a range of issues related to school improvement. The first set of issues deals with deciding upon the nature of the desired changes. The second set deals with planning how to proceed. One hundred twenty-eight footnotes are appended. (IW)

Reviews the rapidly expanding literature on the federal government's involvement in elementary and secondary education, covering research syntheses published in the early 1980's and subsequent unanthologized empirical research and normative commentaries. Identifies trends and themes that surface from this literature, encompassing both empirical…

Reviews recent research on women, blacks, and Hispanics in public school administration. Focuses on (1) the inadequacy of organizational theory to deal with questions concerning equity, power, conflict, and social control; (2) employment trends and the issue of underrepresentation; and (3) a summary of future research. Appended are 159 footnotes.…

According to researchers, the principal's leadership and the perceptions of the school staff are important in effective schools. A method for uncovering personal perceptions called ethnographic semantics is described. Findings from a study in which this methodology was used are presented. Includes three tables and two figures. (MD)

Since 1970 approximately half of the states have challenged the constitutionality of state educational funding methods under equal protection or educational adequacy grounds. A review of court cases finds no clear trend towards acceptance or rejection of state provisions for school financing but does reveal a heightened awareness of inequity in…

Reviews a Minnesota study of tax concessions to private school parents and provides an analysis of the strategy of constituency mobilization. The Minnesota experience shows that a mobilized, powerful issue constituency can enforce political accountability on the bargaining process and influence educational policy. Such single issue linkages…

Research on effective schools is limited by the same weaknesses that hamper research on effective organizations. Examining two competing frameworks for studying organizational effectiveness, this report proposes a general model of school effectiveness. The model was enacted and studied in one school and was found to be effective. Includes two…

This introduction reviews the five accompanying articles and comments on the lack of a federal policy on educational research, urging educators to develop sound political strategy for advocating such a policy. (MCG)

Reviews the history and conclusions of school effectiveness research, which focuses on student achievement, and of school improvement research, which emphasizes educational innovation per se; analyzes the methodologies of these two lines of inquiry. Distills from both bodies of literature seven school characteristics that constitute excellence.…

Examines the state of educational policy analysis, discussing the field's history, conceptual approaches to policy, areas of policy that have been studied, and methodological issues. Concludes with speculation on the future of policy research. (MCG)

Rational and political theories of education budgeting are critiqued using comparative field data on the management of declining resources in 10 urban school systems. A new rational theory is introduced that explains events in these cities; restructures rational theory; and incorporates political, economic, and administrative concepts. Included…