Microcomputers can vastly improve the efficiency of data management, data analysis, and communications in the school office, but implementation should be carefully planned, with attention to relative cost for benefits obtained, appropriateness of software and hardware, and potential security risks. (TE)

Entrepreneurship, or small business ownership, is an increasingly attractive option to young people and adults (including low-income populations, at-risk youth, and women) who are striving to find careers that are exciting to them and offer the potential for personal and financial success. Entrepreneurs must be self-starters, innovative, willing…

In the present decade, many management and organizational communication scholars have explored a guiding metaphor--organizational culture. Japanese industry has developed a corporate model that may have provided the concepts involved in organizational culture: ideology, beliefs, rituals, myths, and symbols. Organizational culture is inextricably…

In June 1994, the Texas Center for Educational Technology (TCET) posted a survey on several educational listservs and conference groups on the Internet requesting comments, observations, and opinions from educators having experience with telephones in classrooms. Most of the respondents agreed on the need to equip K-12 classrooms with modern…

This digest considers the school counselor's role in helping students to acquire the basic skills they will need throughout their lives. A contemporary definition of basic skills includes not only the modern versions of the "three Rs" (reading, writing, and computing), but also encompasses a variety of attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors…

An internship program, created by the English Department at Saint Cloud (Minnesota) State University, is designed to respond to the current need for an improvement in the workplace literacy of many American workers. The internship and concurrent colloquium provide a crucial link between theory and practice, enabling learners to reflect critically…

This digest summarizes some of the recent research regarding school-based management (SBM). In particular, it addresses two questions: (1) Is SBM working, and (2) What can schools changing to an SBM system do to ensure success? Information is presented on what type of SBM system works best, research on SBM success, the kinds of problems…

Prior to the late 1960s, physical education professional preparation programs in the United States were principally concerned with preparing coaches of sport and teachers of physical education. However, in recent decades, the field has spawned a number of alternative career tracks of which none has proven to be more viable than sport management.…

Educational policy makers and administrators must choose from a bewildering variety of discipline models and techniques. Legal intervention and contradictory research findings further complicate the matter. There is, therefore, no cut-and-dried solution to student behavior problems. Rather, discipline policies must be based on community values,…

Total Quality Management (TQM) establishes business and industry standards and techniques that ensure the quality of products leaving and reaching firms through continuous actions rather than one final inspection. Deming, Juran, and Crosby, who initiated the process, share a common theme of participatory management. Management participation and…

On average, leaders are engaged in one form or another of communication for about 70 percent of their waking moments. This digest provides suggestions for school leaders who want to increase the effectiveness of those interactions. A first step is to recognize that listening is the skill most essential to effective communication. Other skills of…

Life is more complex than ever for adults in the 21st century as a result of technological advances; the changing nature of work, workplaces, and working relationships; international economic competition; the changing demographics of workers, families, and communities; and longer life spans. Learning to cope with all these changing…

School-to-work transition services are intended to help youth develop the skills and attitudes they need to find and keep employment, maintain a meaningful adult life-style, and develop positive social interactions. Eligibility for such services has now been broadened beyond disabled students to include students with economic or educational…

Quality work teams that are based on W. Edwards Deming's business-management theories have proliferated at the school and district levels to handle problem solving and decision making. Teams are said to build stronger relationships among those involved in education and, ultimately, to benefit students because more people with broader perspectives…

This brief report summarizes a longer document with the same title. Distinctive colleges and universities possess a unifying theme or vision that is expressed in all their activities. They also usually respond to newly emerging societal or community needs unmet by existing schools of higher education. Distinctiveness, however, can limit the…