NASSP Bulletin

Pressures mount to apply bandaid solutions to education's prob lems, observe these educators, who caution administrators against cosmetic approaches if schools are to become truly effec tive.

By identifying the important elements of a school's culture, these researchers point to concrete ways that principals can im prove their school's effectiveness.

One aspect of the instructional process that is frequently ignored is the personality of the learner. An awareness of this factor will help educators to better meet the needs of their students.

The importance of employer-employee trust in the workplace is a concept that receives a great deal of lip service. But more than lip service is needed, says this writer, who examines key be haviors necessary to establish trusting relationships.

Principals can improve their skills in supervision by developing an organizational climate around Ouchi's Theory Z. In showing how, the authors explain behavior modeling and illustrate how a typical session can improve classroom instruction.

Several strategies are presented here to help a building principal direct the behavior of people involved in a school setting.

This writer explores two ideas: What is courage in the edu cational setting? and, How can one develop the conditions to be courageous when courage is needed?

Here is an article designed to encourage principals to think about how they might help teachers use the findings of educational research in their classrooms, and how they might help their schools generate their own situation-specific research that has immediate application to school administrative or classroom problems.

School management, a behavior system that involves everyone, needs periodic renewal. The project described here shows how this was done with highly positive results in one school system of more than 40 schools. The authors offer reprints of the forms used in the project to interested readers.

A survey of high school principals and middle management executives by these writers reveals how administrators make decisions. Some guidelines for improving the process are also presented here.

More effective school leadership, a concern of most admin istrators, has received much attention from researchers in recent years. To keep Bulletin readers current on what research is saying, the editors asked Gene Huddle to prepare periodic arti cles on the subject. This is the first.

As technology becomes more pervasive and the nation's work place changes, how can educators prepare students for tomorrow's world? This writer says: Teach them thinking skills, thus enabling them to become creative users of technology.

What makes an effective principal? These writers outline some criteria which may help to answer that question.

Comparing education in America to education in Asian countries may be like comparing apples and oranges, conclude these edu cators, who say that ultimately education must reflect society's perceived needs.

The model for effective program development that is described here assumes continuity in the process of evaluation, goal set ting, planning, implementation, and data collection. The authors report the results of a study that focused on the goal-setting process.

School-based competitions are generally dominated by athletics. However, academic contests can do much to enhance the school climate. These writers look at some of the many possibilities for such competitions.

Most educators have had the opportunity to read the national reports but not to see what others think of the recommendations and how they rate them. This article reports the results of a survey of what principals think.

Educators must make clear what their words mean, says this writer, who takes a close look at the meaning of "Curriculum. " Defining key terms will improve a school's effectiveness.

A good testing procedure can be the teacher's faithful ally in helping students master learning tasks, says this principal, who describes how to reduce teacher anxieties about retesting.

In preparing for its North Central Accreditation the school de scribed in this article conducted a self-appraisal audit based on 12 determinants developed by the state's Department of Correc tions. The authors believe the process enabled them to focus on the positive.