In the 1984-85 school year, the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) began to actively encourage Pennsylvania school districts to reform their teacher supervision/evaluation (TS/E) procedures. To obtain data necessary for developing TS/E models, the PDE commissioned Research for Better Schools (RBS) to conduct a study of five school…

The evaluation of a high school teacher by his principal in Alberta, Canada, was examined by analyzing the conversations that occurred between the researcher, the principal, and the teacher he was evaluating. The analysis reveals much about why the principal undertook teacher evaluations, and what counts as evidence for good or poor practice.…

This study was conducted to determine how reform at the middle school level translates into classroom practice within the framework of innovation and decision-making. A set of field notes was developed through formal and informal interviews with the building principal and two interdisciplinary teams of teachers (N=11) who had moved away from…

Beginning with a review of traditional perspectives on educational leadership, the link between effective principals and school effectiveness, and the bases of social power, this document goes on to report on a 1986-87 study conducted to determine how the types of power used by principals relate to school effectiveness. Subjects were…

The internal politics of colleges and the influence of a current emphasis on efficiency on the traditional independence of the academician are analyzed. It is suggested that the academician does not work in the same differentiated, and therefore interdependent, way as someone in industry or a bureaucracy. Academic activity is segmented, which…

This paper reports on an inquiry into discipline and effective schools, as perceived by administrators and teachers in a large, midwestern school district. A discussion of the historical foundations in school law, the societal milieu for the study, and educational research into discipline and school effectiveness is followed by a summary of the…

This proposal is for a pilot project that applies the best features of private schools to the racially diverse, urban, public elementary schools of Minneapolis (Minnesota). The following features are outlined: (1) classrooms will have a 14:1 student-teacher ratio; (2) all supplemental and compensatory programs will be eliminated; (3) 198 students…

This report describes activities from 1986 through 1990 of the Mastery in Learning Project, which focused on "restructuring the school" and "sharing decision making" at one elementary school in Lewiston, Idaho. Based on need surveys of various constituents of school life (administrators, students, teachers, and parents), a…

Addressing the Pittsburgh public school system's need for staff evaluation, Pittsburgh's Research-Based Instructional Supervisory Model (PRISM) is an adaptation of Madeline Hunter's materials on effective teaching and Theodore Forte's synthesis of Hunter's materials in his "Workshop on Instructional Skills." While total PRISM…

The summer institute phase of the Hartford Effective Schools Initiative is evaluated in this report. Part 1 includes (1) an overview of training content; (2) a section on trainers' methods, assessing strengths and weaknesses; (3) participants' responses to training based on observations by the evaluation staff and informal interviews with…

A study of turnover among high school superintendents and principals in small Kansas school districts found differences in demographic and organizational characteristics, performance measures, and administrators' perceptions in districts with high and low turnover rates. Data obtained from 72 administrator interviews and educational directories…

This study compares the criteria utilized by private and public school officials in the selection of beginning teachers. A similar study undertaken in Oregon (Webb 1980) was extended by incorporating private schools. Of the 117 California school districts sent questionnaires, 88 responded--a return rate of 75 percent. Twenty-nine of the private…

This research study, still in the data collection stage, analyzes teacher recruitment among nine Winnipeg area school divisions by describing practices and decision-making criteria. The report focuses on three elements in the decision-making process as defined by Lipham--decision stages, decision involvement, and decision content. Data were…

This study sought to determine the relative importance of specified criteria used in the selection of beginning teachers and also to identify the characteristics of candidates that influence hiring officials. A similar study conducted in Oregon (N. D. Webb 1980) was partially replicated and extended by including private districts and by…

To discover if there were differences in the influence-gaining behaviors of principals in schools of varying levels of instructional effectiveness, 9 of 19 urban schools involved in a school improvement project were selected for study. All the schools met the following criteria: involvement in the project for at least 1 year, employment of the…