The Milwaukee (Wisconsin) Public Schools' Project RISE raised the achievement levels of 18 inner-city elementary schools dramatically without changing personnel or student composition, and without additional funding. Improvements were related to change in staff attitudes and in policies and practices affecting management, organization, behavior,…

The Baltimore New Compact Schools model offers schools an opportunity to cluster their resources, personnel, and funds. The Hirsch Core Knowledge Curriculum helps all three elementary schools compensate for disadvantaged students' lost learning time. The nonprofit Enterprise Foundation offers schools leadership, management, and technical support.…

Discusses the need for developing accurate assessment methods and establishing a common standard for all students through a voluntary national examination system. School-based management programs and models of excellence will not affect the vast majority of schools. States and districts must make strategic moves and comprehensive policy changes…

A reaction to bureaucracy and its inherently authoritarian management and fragmented work styles, work-team organizations broaden and integrate responsibilities while focusing on outcomes. In April 1991, Lake Washington (Washington) School District successfully reorganized its central office staff, building administrators, and support personnel…

Although the amount of available time imposes limitations on accomplishment, the key issue is time usage. Effective classroom management conserves instruction time by planning activities and tasks to fit the learning materials; setting and conveying procedural and academic expectations; and appropriately sequencing, pacing, monitoring, and…

State endorsements of site-based management frequently overlook the development of skills necessary for collegial teamwork and strategies for demonstrating administrators' sincere commitment to the process. This article describes symbolic actions that some administrators have taken to develop new skills and build the necessary trust for assuming…

Alfie Kohn seems ill-informed about Total Quality Management's educational benefits. Students have always been workers; what is changing is the nature of that work. In schools of quality, teachers and students learn together as they create collaborative, trusting environments where failure is but a temporary step on the road to continuous…

In a 1998 study of effective British principals, school staffs agreed that successful heads were values-led, people- centered, achievement-oriented, inward/outward facing, and able to manage ongoing tensions and dilemmas: leadership/management, development/maintenance, autocracy/autonomy, personal time/professional tasks, personal…

Site-management designs generally fail to establish structures and processes that help school communities work through cultural change. The Comer School Development Program succeeds because it supports a change in school culture and focuses on children's development, not just their speech, language, and intellectual capabilities. Lessons from…

Already a business management classic, "Thriving on Chaos," by Tom Peters, has momentous theoretical and practical implications for educators. Peters's organizational solutions to the challenge of the declining U.S. economy are also prescriptions for school survival. Today's organizations need fewer structural layers and must be…

When embarking on school/community-based management, nine Hawaii elementary schools trained their staff in facilitative leadership and received technical assistance from district offices. Schools can involve more parents by reaching a shared understanding about parental involvement, developing appropriate involvement strategies, providing parents…

Defends the Assertive Discipline model critiqued by Curwin and Mendler's article in the same "Educational Leadership" issue. This systematic approach is shown to be an effective and practical behavior management strategy leading to improved student and teacher self-concept, consistently positive reinforcement, and positive learning…

Site-based management is especially relevant for large, complex, and bureaucratic city districts. A recent study of six urban midwestern schools shows that effective SBM schools fully involve parents, challenge current principal/teacher relationships, eliminate destructive district/school relationships, build a trusting climate, create meaningful…

Although Alfie Kohn is a first-rate thinker, his article in the same "Educational Leadership" issue confuses adopting Total Quality Management methods with intelligently adapting them. Kohn wrestles too hard with the "worker/student" metaphor and wrongly disparages Deming's emphasis on data and performance. Schools can definitely benefit from…

Restructuring jelled for Winona, Minnesota, schools while staff struggled to meet two major tenets: (1) all students can succeed; and (2) schools control the conditions of success. Instituting site-based management and a vision statement was not enough. Steps were taken to communicate the vision, develop successful pilot projects, and empower…