The skills acquired in a Job-Alike Workshop can go a long way toward reducing the "I don't get no respect" syndrome compounded by high student/supervisor ratios. When support personnel learn student management strategies, their daily tasks are easier, and the positive effects are noticeable throughout the entire school. (MLH)

To handle unforeseen crises, Albuquerque Public Schools established a critical-incident response team with a simple, understandable chain of command. The group aims to ensure maximum safety and people' well-being, develop a districtwide crisis-response-management plan, coordinate necessary training, and collaborate with community agencies…

Appointing administrators as instructional leaders worked to the detriment of teachers, who are now expected to transcend the old transmission teaching models and participate more actively in school management. Administrators must now become the servants of collective vision and act as editors, cheerleaders, problem solvers, resource finders, and…

To address the social challenges facing schools, administrators must revitalize the work culture. Borrowing from successful business practices, the School Management Institute has implemented a 25-day Managing Productive Schools leadership training program in Florida, Minnesota, and Virginia. The program is based on the cultural conditions,…

For site-based management to succeed, supervisors must progress from advising teachers to empowering them to make classroom changes. The author changed her communication style by becoming aware of the subtle yet powerful role of communication in school leadership, discovering how unconscious scripts interfered with empowerment efforts,…

Specific problems (involving power, implementation, mission, time management, expertise, cultural constraints, avoidance, and motivation) are keeping school-based decision making from improving teaching and learning. Educators must begin with a clear mission, set explicit goals for the decision-making process, alter governance structures to…

In its 1982 long-range school improvement plan, the Muhlenberg (Pennsylvania) School District targeted mathematical computation skills, focusing on (1) developing a management information system to document student achievement; (2) redesigning the curriculum; (3) aligning regular and remedial mathematics programs; and (4) implementing a…

Today's schools are too big. If smaller schools and classroom settings are beneficial and less costly, why do we continue to operate and build large schools? Perhaps committing to smaller schools would require us to rethink the leadership, management, and organization theories that dominate school administration. Authority should be vested in…

An analysis of 50 years of research reveals that direct influences such as classroom management affect student learning more than indirect influences such as policies. Findings based on standardized tests and essay examinations showed student aptitude as the most influential variable, followed by classroom instruction and climate, context, program…

Project learning, with community and school staff assistance, helped a fifth-grade class transform the school lunchroom and their own behavior. A $2,500 Alcoa grant spearheaded an Italian restaurant project. Children served on five committees: public relations and advertising, management, art and design, planning and budgeting, and research. The…

James P. Comer, a distinguished Black child psychiatrist born of sharecropper parents, credits his family's values and continued support for his success in college. In 1968, Comer and his colleagues developed a school-based management team to help poor families and schools develop trust and mutual respect. The program is widely used in New Haven…

During 1990-91, Michigan schools piloted an innovative portfolio approach enabling students to discover, document, and develop employability skills in academics, personal management, and teamwork. Not an improved sorting system, the project encourages students to recognize successes, seek opportunities to improve skills, and gain confidence in…

Restructuring is changing the system of rules, roles, and relationships that govern the use of time, people, space, knowledge, and technology. The teacher's new role is inventing engaging work. The school board's role is educating the community about school conditions. The superintendent's role is influencing stakeholder decision making. Without…

Saying a kind word to a classmate, acknowledging other students' feelings, sharing books and advice, defending a victim of bullying--these are just a few of the prosocial behaviors that can enhance students' social and academic lives at school. Because children do not develop social values in a vacuum, educators, policymakers, and researchers are…

Recent research suggests that ability grouping and tracking do not increase overall achievement in schools but promote inequality. High-track teachers are more enthusiastic and spend more time preparing lessons, whereas low-track teachers spend more time on behavior management and less on instruction. A sidebar by Cloyd Hastings demands abolition…