This document justifies U.S. government funding of the Southern Regional Consortium of Colleges of Education (SRCCE) proposal for a Educational Leadership Research and Development Center (ELRDC), reviews the formulation of the research and development agenda, lists the several steps leading to the establishment of the center designated to…

This paper advocates that principal preparation programs should be designed on traditional bases. By reviewing existing literature, this article suggests that exemplary principal preparation programs should be founded on a combination of research data, theory, and practice or craft knowledge, and that the contributions of each should be made…

This essay discusses professional development as a capacity-building strategy. It raises questions about various approaches to capacity building, including the emphasis on professional development. It states that despite self-reports and surveys, scant, if any, replicable empirical evidence relates professional development to changes in teacher…

This review of research connected to Project Student Teacher Achievement Ratio (STAR) is a summary of the project's ongoing work in the form of a letter from researchers to a hypothetical colleague. Project STAR has investigated the effect on student achievement and development of small classes in the primary grades (K through 3). A research…

A review of recent literature and commission reports identifies persistent problems in two areas of educational administration: research and preparation programs. The two problems are linked in that they are often supervised by faculty who direct but do not themselves perform research. Two areas of research needs are the poor research skills of…

Class size in elementary grades has taken on added importance recently. Research on the topic is finally getting some attention. Legislative and administrative actions to reduce deficits are pushing for larger class sizes, in addition to eliminating nonessential curricular activities, such as music, drama, and art. In Florida, various institutions…

This paper discusses the critical elements and offers corrective models of effective administrator preparation programs. It argues that such programs should promulgate the learning or "why" of theory, the "what" of research, and the "how" of practice. Only concomitant coursework in the liberal arts, the behavioral sciences, and research welded to…

This study, a research component of Tennessee's 1987-1988 Leadership in Educational Administration Development (LEAD) project, describes actual and preferred teacher involvement in selected school activities. Two hundred and three teachers in 18 schools ranked their degree of actual and preferred involvement in determining school activities. The…

Project SHAL in St. Louis (Missouri) involved an attempt to reproduce effective schooling elements, as identified by research, in four inner-city schools, including one middle school (Stowe) and three K-5 schools (Hempstead, Arlington, and Laclede). The pilot project required the development of a replication model to track project implementation,…

Some of the concern about educators' failures to build a strong educational foundation revolves around the idea of "professional" and its relationship to the concept of "malpractice." Educators usually claim that education is a profession of practice and thus ought to embody at least a generalized statement about professional…

Strategies for improving the recruitment and selection of educational administrators are presented in this report. A recommendation is made for the development of administrator preparation programs based on collaboration between local education agencies, higher education institutions, the individual, and the educational administration (EA)…

The administrator preparation reform issue is affected by a split in loyalties between the "professional" model and the liberal arts model. Whereas recent calls for reform follow the professional model, most professors of educational administration, who must implement the reforms, are products of the liberal arts tradition. This paper reviews…

The core work of educational administration is school improvement, especially improved school outcomes. The leader must know what to do, why some interventions work better than others, and how to implement them. Longitudinal experimental research, meta-analyses, and evaluations have definitely shown that small classes, at least in K-3, provide an…

Issues in the educational administration knowledge base are discussed in this paper, with attention to its definition, extent, and usefulness. The discussion is based on the premises that the knowledge base lacks: (1) organization; (2) definition and applicability; and (3) comprehensiveness and usefulness. Other hindrances to developing a…

Beginning with a review of signs and signals of public attitudes toward American education over the last 15 years, this paper analyzes some concerns regarding public confidence in public schools. Following a brief introduction, issues involved in the definition and behavioral attributes of confidence are mentioned. A synopsis of three approaches…