Purpose: The expansion of alternative education, globally, has coincided with a shift towards greater accountability for ensuring educational access and opportunity, high academic standards and increased graduation rates. While studies suggest the pervasive influence of accountability may be redefining how school leaders provide meaningful…

In Australia, teachers' accountability has grown less centralized and less bureaucratized as teachers have become more knowledgeable and better trained. Opposing forces are currently battling over whether to increase monitoring. In as multidimensional an administrative field as Australian schooling, a complex, changing monitoring system must…

A study of 20 representative primary schools in New South Wales, Australia, revealed that a high degree of principal supportiveness as measured by the Organizational Climate Description Questionnaire was associated positively with curriculum decision making by staff groups and negatively with curriculum decision-making by individual teachers. (PGD)

A study of public school teachers in Iowa assessed their interest and involvement in participatory decision making at the classroom, building, and district levels. The strongest correlations found linked the teacher's sex and the educational level at which they taught with the types of participation in which they were involved. (PGD)

Interviews with administrators and reviews of official reports in 12 Ontario school districts provided data on the processes and participants involved in policymaking, the size of the central office administrative staff, and the nature of changes in administrative organization over the preceding decade. (PGD)

Stepwise discriminant analysis coupled with logit regression analysis of freshmen data from Brandon University (Manitoba) indicated that six tested variables drawn from research on university dropouts were useful in predicting attrition: student status, residence, financial sources, distance from home town, goal fulfillment, and satisfaction with…

The Regional Tutorial Services Unit of Great Britain's Open University links the school's regional educational programs with the central office, provides for student counseling, and maintains enrollment. This article reviews the unit's first 10 years, its present structure and operations, and the factors underlying or inhibiting its notable…

After summarizing research into the sources and correlates of teacher stress, this article defines and proposes a model of work-related stress in school, incorporating current concepts and research findings. Strategies for coping with the buildup of environmental stressors are developed for application at various administrative levels within the…

Describes a databased taxonomy of behaviors that elementary and secondary school teachers use to cope with both internally and externally derived work stress, considers the effectiveness of such behaviors, discusses methods for preparing teachers for working conditions, and points out the value of the taxonomy for future research. (PGD)

Those teaching educational administration need to consider the characteristics, development, and attitudes of their students; the educational context, including questions of student assessment, teaching students from different institutions, and group teaching; and factors affecting course content, including appropriate teaching styles and concerns…

Criteria are set forth for a philosophy that could contribute to advancement in educational administration. Three broad areas are covered: (1) the ideas and methods of educational administration; (2) communication and verification in the field; and (3) values and the normative side of education. (TE)

Investigates teacher perceptions of cost/benefits of permanent part-time teaching (PPTT) in Australian schools. A questionnaire gauged effects of PPTT on teachers' working conditions, the teacher employment market, school administration, and social interactions among teachers. Respondents overwhelmingly supported the introduction of PPTT in the…

Professors of educational administration are being pressed to hold one of three conflicting viewpoints about knowledge and practice: "behavioral science,""symbolic," or "critical." Using Rein's notion of stories, the author urges professors to debate these viewpoints among themselves but use stories to study practitioners. (Author/TE)

The Organizational Climate Description Questionnaire (OCDQ), modified by Thomas and Slater for use in South Australian schools in 1970, was based on four factors (rather than the original eight): principal supportiveness or operations emphasis and teacher disaffiliation or intimacy. A recent study in New South Wales has validated this four-factor…

A sample of elementary and high schools was investigated to determine principals' influence on student achievement test scores. Analysis of variance estimated principals' effects while controlling for environmental and organizational factors. Findings indicate that principals exert a small but important influence on school performance. (TE)