For our students to become truly free, we must share with them our perceptions concerning freedom. Educators must stop "motivating" and begin inspiring students to use education as a means toward self-realization. Teachers and administrators should stop isolating themselves and experience the benefits of cooperation and collegiality. Includes two…

Examines truancy characteristics, effective attendance policies, and workable attendance enforcement and remediation programs. One school district threatens habitual truants' parents with court action leading to fines and jail sentences. A worthy goal is encouraging both students and parents to take compulsory education statutes seriously. (MLH)

Inschool suspension programs often fail due to lack of planning, inadequate financial support, insufficient monitoring procedures, inconsistent counseling and followup, and a poorly developed evaluation design. This article outlines 12 essential program elements and offers program design recommendations. (MLH)

Overwhelmed by an unending stream of middle school offenders referred to his office, a new vice-principal decided to abandon his solitary shamanship and seek staff assistance. The result--a trained, 16-member student leadership group (assisted by faculty advisers) to orient other students and teachers to a vastly improved school ethic. (MLH)

Offers school administrators 10 rationales for explaining student suspensions to inquiring parents. Suspension is a way to punish parents or call an "enforced parent conference" to enlist their support. Ideally, suspension creates an opportunity for positive home/school partnerships. (MLH)

A leader's motivation tasks include recognizing followers' needs, helping them devise goals to meet these needs, and giving them confidence to accomplish these goals themselves. The small work group fills important social and emotional needs; its attitudes affect productivity, morale, and product quality. (MLH)

Waning interest in community service is spurring the Coalition for National Service and other groups to recommend various measures to encourage and finance voluntary national service for young people. This article discusses history, current definitions, and legislative initiatives concerned with national service. A sidebar provides a statement and…

Although this study's results favored heterogeneous over homogeneous ability grouping in mainstreamed, middle school classrooms, each arrangement produced desirable and less desirable outcomes. Instructional success can probably be realized by using either approach, so long as off-task and other liabilities can be effectively counteracted.…

Based on a study of change facilitation in eight high schools, this article debunks three common myths concerning administrative organization as an obstacle to managing high school change. Tentative guidelines are provided to help determined managers cure stagnation and thwart bureaucratic intransigency. (MLH)

To apply the participative model successfully, school administrators and supervisors must adopt a new management and supervisory style; teachers must be convinced of administrative commitment; and the principal must wholeheartedly support the program. This article describes a New York City high school's creation of a collaborative supervision…

In a September 1988 "NASSP Bulletin" article, the author challenged readers to construct a question analysis matrix for curriculum evaluation in relation to critical thinking and problem solving. The author's solution, featuring various "domains" or components categorized according to planning, implementation, and outcome stages, comprises this…

Principals are confronted daily with opportunities to choose either bureaucratic or nonbureaucratic leadership behaviors. Effective principals make a conscious leadership choice, recognizing that the options have paradoxical implications and produce different school cultures. In the process, new administrator role definitions are emerging.…

Many schools lag far behind the technology curve in making optimal administrative use of computers. This article provides a 10-item test to help administrators gauge their school's efficiency in this area. (MLH)

Most assistant principals aspire to the principalship. Principals play an important role in helping assistant principals attain that goal by sharing the instructional leadership role with them and working side-by-side with them in every aspect of school administration. (MLH)

Ethical leadership is the moral component of instructional leadership. Ethical guidelines for principals include respect for all members of society, tolerance for divergent opinions and cultures, equality of persons, and equal distribution of resources. Specific guidelines are provided to help principals exercise effective ethical leadership.…