Profiles four educational leaders: Gregory Anrig, head of the Educational Testing Service; Ernest Boyer, president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching; Louis (Bill) Honig, Jr., superintendent of public instruction for California; and Albert Shanker, president of the American Federation of Teachers. Considers educational…

Considers variations among concepts of leadership, reviews efforts to provide leadership training, and describes seven leadership skills for the future: maintaining simultaneous awareness of the present and future; bridging gaps between interest groups; keeping abreast of change; appraising situations; enhancing intuition; managing symbols; and…

Having undergone major improvement in recent years, state governments were able to respond decisively when the public showed alarm over the condition of education. Since educational reform depends on leadership by teachers, enhancement of the teaching profession in terms of status, participant quality, and training must be encouraged. (PGD)

In addition to serving as managers and teachers, superintendents must exercise considerable political skill to meet the varying demands placed on school administrations by school boards responding to changing public pressures. Managing the conflict growing out of these multiple roles is the sign of an excellent superintendent. (PGD)

A study of elementary and secondary principals revealed that effective principals all demonstrated five essential qualities of leadership--they had clear visions of desirable futures for their schools, translated those visions into specific goals, established supportive environments for improvement, monitored progress, and intervened effectively…

Presents the results of polling in 1985 concerning the public's attitudes toward the nation's public schools, toward local schools, and toward school personnel, teacher salaries, merit pay, teacher competency, the curriculum, extracurricular activities, homework, student rights, student discipline, school finance, alternatives to public education,…

A survey of 215 parents of students in elementary or secondary schools in Abbotsford, British Columbia, revealed how parents received information about the schools, how they preferred to receive such information, what information dissemination methods they felt were most effective, and the extent to which they wished to be informed. (PGD)

Considers the sociocultural factors that discourage the appropriate teaching of reading and writing. Discusses how the lay community would have to be involved in an improved language arts curriculum that individualized learning tasks, encouraged developmental interaction among individuals, and integrated learning across subjects, media, and types…

A dialog between two fictional teachers provides some basic examples of how research that uses approved methodology may provide results that are significant statistically but not significant practically. (PGD)

Any given child should attend school full time when three parties agree that the time is right: the child, his or her parents, and the school officials. Arbitrary starting dates based on calendar age are outmoded and educationally unsound. (PGD)

Research suggests that children should be kept at home until 8 to 12 years old, then begin attending school. Attitudes toward parents, peers, and school can be improved and children can learn more effectively when taught physically, academically, and socially at home in their early years. (PGD)

Allowing a fifth grader who caused problems in regular classrooms to exert control over some learning activities led to the student's involvement in the activities, his commitment to their completion, and the development of a situation that made learning to read desirable and acceptable to him. (PGD)

The Texas Supreme Court ruled that students' rights to participate in extracurricular activities were not on the same level as rights to free speech and found that the state law barring failing students from extracurricular activities was rationally related to a legitimate state interest in educational quality. (PGD)

Reviews the policies of various European governments concerning the financing of student costs for postsecondary eduation, touching on the payment of tuition, the use of grants or loans, the effects of different student populations, and some social and administrative implications of governmental support. (PGD)

Classroom research and formative evaluation, the most efficient methods of assessing and planning teaching improvements, form the link to quality student learning. An assessment program at Alverno College (Wisconsin) and an instructional improvement program at Miami-Dade Community College (Florida) demonstrate the importance of bringing assessment…