This report summarizes the findings of a study of the professional development or inservice training needs of experienced teachers in the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS). An introduction to the findings of the survey is devoted to a discussion of the teachers' perceptions of the important factors that influence their teaching in DCPS.…

Two data-gathering instruments, the Supervisory Behavior Description Questionnaire (SBDQ) and the derivative Supervising Teacher Behavior Description Questionnaire (STBDQ), are described in one paper and employed in three others in this symposium series. Both forms are useful in evaluating perceived behaviors of supervisory educational personnel,…

A guide for college presidents is presented that reviews briefly the significant research on leadership and power and discusses each presidential constituency. Attention is directed to the uses and limits of the following types of power in many daily situations: coercive, reward, legitimate, expert, and charismatic. Of these types of power, it is…

Eight issues concerning academic freedom are discussed. The issues are: (1) the question of who should have the right to decide what should be taught; (2) the extent to which school districts should impose specific restrictions on subjects discussed in the classroom; (3) the controversy over the rights of teachers to refuse to teach content that…

The influence of faculty characteristics, perceptions, and work environment on job satisfaction and identification with the institution was studied. Questionnaire responses from 9,237 faculty were evaluated, based on a 1971 survey conducted by the Stanford Project on Academic Governance. The following faculty characteristics were considered: time…

This monograph offers practical suggestions on how to develop and implement an effective and legally viable system of teacher evaluation. Part 1, "The Legal Arena," discusses current trends in school employee litigation, suggesting that an effective evaluation process can be one of the greatest deterrents to successful employee first amendment…

This study was designed to add to the knowledge bases of teaching and professional development. It is a phenomenological study of the classroom teacher and a group of seven elementary school teachers who reflected upon, wrote about, and discussed their lives as classroom teachers over a one-year period. Teachers kept written diaries which…

Teacher incentive systems enable school districts to address the current concerns of their constituencies: teachers' concern with salaries, administrators' concern for attracting good people into the teaching profession, and community concern that increased expenditures for teacher salaries have not improved education. Accordingly, this handbook…

Included in this report is the complete text of the Cabinet Council on Human Resources (CCHR) memorandum entitled "Disorder in Our Public Schools," also known as the Bauer Report. The memorandum argues that the quality of public education in the United States is threatened by pervasive disorder in the schools. It also claims that school…

This study of rural schools in the states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas focused on self-reported characteristics of secondary school principals as well as their leadership style. A total of 592 surveys were mailed to the identified population, of whom 462 returned completed forms. It was found that the Great Plains rural…

Addressed is the administrative dilemma of principals' and teachers' sharing decision-making and its effect on strong instructional leadership. The findings were developed as part of an exploratory field study conducted in six public middle schools in a large urban school system. The sample consisted of five black male and one white female…

This case study of a Colorado school district sought to assess the process and outcomes of administrative leadership in implementing school effectiveness research on time-on-task classroom strategies. The study examines the interrelationship of conditions bearing upon the change effort and focuses on those changes affecting the district's…

A growing number of educators are focusing their efforts on improving the work environment of teaching. In place of the typical school's norms and practices that isolate teachers from one another, collaborative schools have norms that encourage teachers and principals to cooperate for school improvement. Such schools are characterized by frequent…

Trends over the past 25 years in research on evaluation of school administrative leadership are analyzed in this summary report. Administrator evaluation became a concern as the principal's influence on the performance and attitudes of faculty and staff was realized. Research on organizational psychology demonstrated the relationship between…

Community colleges face serious challenges arising from decreased budgets, greater pressures on faculty, and an increasingly heterogeneous student population. To cope with these challenges community colleges need to develop innovative instructional strategies to ensure the fulfillment of their missions. Five conditions may be identified under…