Planning for school turnaround in the United States: an analysis of the quality of principal-developed quick wins

Research suggests that high-quality school improvement planning reflective of the school’s needs and objectives is central to a principal’s success in leading a school. Some American scholars contend that successfully planned and executed “quick wins” are critically important to launching high-level organizational change processes necessary to turn around low-performing schools. Yet, lack of research suggests that the concept of quick wins may be built more on assumptions than evidence. In this study, we evaluate formal quick wins as planned by school principals participating in a turnaround leadership program in the United States. Our results suggest that principals struggle to develop high-quality quick wins despite their relative simplicity as an improvement planning starting point, especially in comparison with the development of traditional annual improvement or development plans. Finally, we consider the implications of these results in relation to traditional school improvement planning, especially in response to low-performing school contexts.     

A holistic approach to supporting distance learning using the Internet: transformation, nottranslation

This is the first of a series of papers describing how the Open University, a large distance education institution, has embraced the Internet as a medium for supporting its students, tutors, academics, and administrators throughout the education process. This paper reports on a holistic approach to integrating technology into the teaching process which addresses how to provide necessary functions in effective forms—some traditional, some new. It describes the development and structure of actual systems, which incorporate electronic student registration; electronic assignment submission, marking, and recording; electronic tutorials and other interaction; and electronic examinations. It describes and summarises some of the findings of the evaluation of those systems, including student, academic, and administrator feedback. Finally, this paper reflects on the benefits of an integrated holistic approach in exploiting the Internet's potential to support distance learning on a massive scale. Subsequent papers in this series will address specific areas in detail: the student experience, the role of the tutor in an electronic environment, and the institutional perspective.     

A national survey investigating consultation training occurring in school psychology programs

The 203 school psychology training programs in the United States were surveyed regarding their approaches to consultation training, and responses were obtained from 60% of these programs. Forty percent of the programs offer at least one course devoted solely to consultation, while 60% do not offer such a course; more of the doctoral programs responding offer consultation training than do the nondoctoral programs; and practicum experience is considered an important aspect of consultation training. It is concluded that a greater emphasis on consultation training may help to promote implementation of this role.     

Neighborhood Press and Immigration

This research studied the way immigration is depicted by the neighborhood press of Barcelona. Mainstream media tend to give visibility to immigrants when problems arise. Through this visibility based on problems, and the processes of framing, a virtual social identity is constructed and given to the immigration population. However, the neighborhood press of Barcelona, inscribed within the Catalan regional press’ own idea of journalism, offers a different approach to this issue due to its history, neighborhood and commitment to the region. Through a frame analysis, three main frames gave a depiction of the immigrants different from the one the mainstream media use. The results show that this differentiated depiction still stereotypes immigrants while not granting them enough visibility even when there is no blaming or attack. In this sense, while accounting for the differences, the neighborhood press of Barcelona misses a chance of depicting immigration in a more accurate way.     

Adults and Reading Disability: A New Field of Inquiry

This paper first describes the development of adult literacy pedagogy and philosophy in Australia, then reports and discusses two studies of research into reading disability for adults. The first study uses a quantitative approach with a sample of 102 asthma patients and has important implications for the assessment of adults' reading. The second study is a theory‐driven, critical case study of the stated needs for literacy of 11 adult literacy learners. These stated literacy needs are argued to be socially constructed, influenced by the external environment of more general socio‐political contexts as well as particular civic, personal and workplace literacy requirements. These needs are also influenced by the adult learners' reconstructions and memories of schooling and the views about literacy of significant others, all of which affect the adult learners' perceptions of their ‘reading failure.’ The perspectives offered by the two different studies provide understandings and insights into this new field of inquiry.     

A comprehensive needs assessment to facilitate prevention of school drop out and violence

The present study addresses school violence and school drop out and proposes that the underlying factor of school connectedness/school climate should guide preventive and intervention efforts. Data were gathered from five schools in a small city school district in north Georgia. Group and individual interviews served as the basis for constructing a 78‐item district‐wide survey administered to 304 school employees. Data are presented on individual items from the survey. Principal components analysis revealed five distinct factors: school connectedness/positive school climate, causes of violence, causes of school drop out, interventions for drop out, and interventions for violence. The principal components analysis was the basis for construction of a revised scale. Differences between revised scale scores were noted as a function of whether respondents were from central office, elementary or secondary schools. The five revised scales had correlation ranging from .31 to .59. Implications for research and practice are discussed. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.