The purpose of the study was to address the issues regarding professionalization of teachers in regional vocational-technical schools in southeastern Massachusetts. Professionalization was defined as the degree to which teachers participate in organizational decisions. The study was intended to determine the perceptions of vocational teachers, academic teachers, and administrators toward professionalization. The extent to which teachers in eight regional vocational-technical high schools were empowered was also explored. A review of the literature was incorporated into the design of the study. A survey was conducted at the eight schools. Five hundred two teachers and administrators responded (86 percent). The questionnaire measured six dimensions which included: horizontal and vertical communication, teaching behavior, leadership, centralization of influence, empowerment, and satisfaction. The findings indicate that there are many differences between the three groups with regard to the role of teachers in school decisions. Administrators tended to overestimate teacher influence. They rated nine of the fourteen areas higher than teachers. Vocational and academic teacher ratings were similar in nine of fourteen dimensions and categories. Vocational teachers rated four areas higher including teaching behavior and willingness. There is evidence of professionalization in the eight schools. Empowered schools show evidence of strong administrative influence, facilitative leadership, vertical communication and satisfied respondents.

Educators are pressed to take seriously their obligation for improving success in school for failure-expectant children and for changing the means used to achieve learning outcomes. This dissertation describes the processes, activities and suggested strategies for integrating staff development, parent outreach and after-school skill support for a small group of low-income Black children targeted for retention at the fifth grade. The project comprised three elements: an after-school skills development/homework hurdle program; a staff development program focusing on encouraging high teacher expectations for all children and a parent outreach program. The project sought to enable minority, failure-expectant children to experience success. Teachers practiced positive interactional and support skills designed to demonstrate an understanding of how their behaviors and expectations impacted on student achievement. The after-school project and staff development component incorporated characteristics drawn from the effective-schools research, such as: (a) the principal's leadership and attention to the quality of instruction, (b) school climate contributing to teaching and learning, (c) high expectations for performance of all students, (d) teachers committed to bringing all children to at least minimum mastery, and (e) assessing and monitoring student achievement. The project had positive effects on student achievement as measured on standardized tests and report card grades, as well as student behaviors. Teachers held higher expectations, practiced effective teaching strategies, and interacted more with colleagues and parents. Educators have a strong knowledge base for school improvement activities among current staffs, but there are no fixed methods or standard blueprints to explain how to combine people, ideas and programs to create a setting that meets all the diverse needs presented by poor and minority children with a history of limited academic achievement. Viewing change as a process, the after-school project directly assisted at risk students in ways that helped teachers modify their strategies and organizational routines to meet educational needs of Black, failure-expectant children. With commitment and accountability for success, learning outcomes increased through staff development, parent outreach, attention to learning readiness, social competencies, and mastery of basic skills. Failure-expectant students came to think of themselves as capable of learning; and their gains helped teachers see the importance of positive expectations. The principal also increased a repertoire of school improvement strategies.

This study examines factors that relate to the role perception and status of African-American administrators working in seven New England State Universities. Most specifically, the study asked: (1) How do African-American Administrators' perception of their responsibility to students, faculty, other administrators, and community impact the delivery of job performance and services? (2) What are some, if any, advantages and disadvantages of being an African-American administrator in a New England State University setting? (3) To what extent does an African-American administrator perceive the quota system and affirmative action as a factor leading to his/her employment? (4) Do African-American administrators perceive their role as mentors for African-American/minority students? (5) To what extent do the African-American administrators perceive their involvement in institutional decision-making? African-American administrators reported their input in institutional decision-making as limited to their particular assignment and not to decisions that influence the mission and goals of the institution. A majority of the respondents believed that they were hired to relate to needs of African-American students and other administrators. Some respondents indicated that they were not sure how the hiring process differed from that of White candidates; and the majority of the respondents think that tokenism was not a contributing factor to their appointment. A number of African-American administrators revealed that their presence on campus heightens the lives of African-American and other minority students. Succeeding on predominantly White campuses is a process which requires a partnership between the top level college officials and the minority administrators. This study supports this notion and encourages institutions of higher education to listen to the comments that African-Americans and other minority administrators are making; comments about real quality of life issues, expanded equal opportunities, and empowerment.

Current literature and research in education underscores the importance that parent participation and involvement play in a child's academic progress and successful educational experience. The importance of involvement has been traced through all educational levels from preschool through high school and in both American and foreign academic settings. American educational reform movements focus on efforts to restructure our schools to include all interested parties in the decision making process. Crucial to this restructuring is an active parental component. If schools are to overcome this crisis of public confidence they must work with the community, including its citizens and business members, to meet the unique individual needs of their setting. No where is this involvement more crucial than in America's inner-city, urban neighborhoods. However, it is here where we have seen minimal parent-school contact. This study explored parental involvement practices in a multi-racial, multi-ethnic, inner city parochial school setting and attempted to identify and analyze the various barriers which prevent a more involvement role for our inner city parents even in this selective setting where the element of parental choice and monetary investment became evident. The descriptive study utilized a questionnaire format to identify these barriers to participation and compare the responses across various racial groups including Hispanic, African American, Native American, White, and Asian American.

This study is an examination of the revised teacher evaluation procedures implemented by the Newton, Massachusetts public school department. The primary objective of the investigation was to determine how the participants, the teachers involved, viewed the pre-training, the common language features, the use of narrative evaluations, and the 'cycle' format proffered by Robert Goldhammer in his pioneering clinical supervision model designed at Harvard University in the mid 60's. An analysis of the literature critiques and presents clinical supervision models from Green Bay, Wisconsin and Avondale, Michigan, as well as research that documents the evolution of clinical supervision, and its adaptation by educators such as Madeline Hunter. Higher means were recorded by respondents who participated in pre-training workshops, conducted over a three year period, than those who did not on all survey items. Teachers felt that they benefited from the revised evaluation procedure using clinical supervision techniques. They found narrative evaluative reports more helpful, especially the female teachers. They were clearer on common language terms shared with their supervisors and they found evaluation less a source of anxiety than those who did not participate in the pre-training.

The purpose of this study is to make predictions for school change in a school system which has recently implemented a Schools of Choice plan. Goals of this plan include systemwide equity, increased parental involvement, and school improvement which is based on the interests of faculty and parents. This plan provides for School Planning Teams which are charged with planning for school change which is responsive to the wishes of the greater community. In order to ascertain the interests of faculty and parents in the city's five elementary schools, a survey was administered by Schools of Choice officials. This survey was prepared by a committee of teachers, administrators and parents, and was based on the advise of a consultant, similar surveys used in other school systems, and the interests of this community. The survey was administered to all elementary school teachers during faculty meetings, was mailed to parents of preschoolers, and was sent home with all elementary school aged children. Opinions were solicited in the areas of academic enrichment possibilities, program options and forms of organization. Survey results identify areas of convergence and divergence of interests among parent and teacher groups in each of the five schools. These survey results contain information which can be of use to School Planning Teams as they begin planning for school change. The process of using a Schools of Choice program as a catalyst for school change is particularly relevant to the rapidly increasing number of school systems, cities and states, which are turning to choice plans to improve the quality of public education. If parents are to chose schools for their children, the schools must differ from one another in meaningful ways. If parents and teachers together are to plan for school improvement and educational diversity, they need the kind of data which can be provided by an opinion survey as a source of direction.

Teacher empowerment has emerged as an important theme in the educational reform of the 1980's. Increasingly the commitment of capable teachers to their work has come to be seen as vital to the success of public schools. Low pay, lack of prestige and status, burnout, unfulfilled expectations, disinterested students, intrusive administrators, isolation from other adults, etc. have been cited as factors that lead to lack of commitment or turnover in the teaching profession. In the absence of nationally led reforms, individual states have begun to look at how teachers might be empowered in their work as a means of countering these issues. In the fall of 1986, the Massachusetts legislature funded twelve fellowships named after the 19th century educational reformer, Lucretia Crocker. These fellowships were intended for experienced, capable public school teachers who had designed and successfully implemented their own programs in their home school districts. By means of the fellowships these teachers spend one year relieved of their regular teaching duties in exchange for sharing their educational approaches with other public school teachers. The fellowships were to be a means of changing the teaching profession by permitting empowered teachers to share the means of their empowerment with others in the profession. Yet to more fully understand teacher empowerment we need to understand the meaning which it occupies in the daily life of the teacher. After interviewing six Lucretia Crocker Fellows at different points in their fellowship year, the study discovers that these teachers feel empowerment when there is an alignment of their values with the operational values of the system in which they work. Yet current educational reform in ignoring the values of the individual teacher in favor of technical and structural solutions to educational issues frequently risks being irrelevant or contradictory to the daily life of the teacher. This study concludes that for these six fellows empowerment was more often a result of their personal initiative and fortuitous chance rather than a consequence of organizational planning or educational policy.

Changing Patterns is the case study of three staff develoment programs carried out over an eight year span at the John W. McCormack Middle School located in Dorchester, MA. Each of the programs is described in detail in order to illustrate the theoretical framework created by the review of the literature. The review includes two areas: the staff development needs for experienced urban teachers and a definition of early adolescence. The review of the personal and professional needs of experienced teachers facing middle adulthood concludes that staff development in school can meet those needs. The definition of early adolecence is presented because of the importance of teacher training including the developmental needs of the learner. From interviews with teachers who participated in the first year it is clear that teachers generally understand the needs of early adolescents although they do not always address the intellectual needs of their students in a daily instruction. However, teachers do show an interest in participating in staff development programs that offer them some autonomy and responsibility. The incentives most frequently identified for participation in such programs were personal growth, team building among staff members, and usefulness to their students. The power of role models underlined most of what they said and did.

This case study focuses on the culture of one selective liberal arts college. The host institution's culture provides the context for explaining the persistence and success of an innovative adult degree program. The research design is rooted in the naturalistic paradigm which takes a holistic, process-oriented view. The research took place over a full academic year at the site, utilizing a hybrid methodology which included a gamut of qualitative techniques as well as a quantitatively-scored questionnaire to elicit both an historical and current perspective of key participants. An initial reading of the literature on innovation in higher education pointed to the hypothesis that compatibility with the host institution's values and norms and profitability for that institution are necessary and sufficient factors in insuring the success of an innovation (Levine, 1980). Findings from this dissertation corroborate the importance of these factors but suggest that they are not sufficient to account for the success of this particular innovation. The additional feature which emerges from this research is the crucial role of leadership in shaping positive perceptions that an innovation meets the criteria of compatibility and profitability. The critical leadership is two-dimensional: first, there must be an innovative policy entrepreneur who initiates the innovation, then skillful managers must lead it from early stages of development through maturation. In this case, the host institution's core values centered on the faculty's sense of their college as primarily a teaching institution at which serious, self-motivated students, exemplified by the adult students, are highly valued. Moreover, the centrality of the teacher-student interaction was affirmed as a key norm; therefore, features of the innovation which differed from these values were not sustained over time. The value of collegiality between the faculty and the program director and significant administrative autonomy which characterized the program's governance also emerged as central. These findings point to a model for the successful persistence of an innovation in higher education which can be utilized for subsequent comparative case studies. This study should be of interest both to practitioners in adult higher education as well as to theorists concerned with innovation and institutional culture.

Although by reputation and performance an effective school, the staff and principal of Adams School in Northtown, Massachusetts sought and won a state-funded grant for school restructuring. Seeking increased autonomy and "more say," the Massachusetts Carnegie Schools Grant Program was seen as a vehicle to facilitate and legitimize the reform-type activities already in progress at the school. The complexity of the restructuring process soon became apparent. Certain staff referred to as "the doubters" questioned the feasibility of restructuring. Lacking a real transfer of power to the school site confirmed the doubters' skepticism. Encountering numerous obstacles, the complex process of restructuring is seen as more analogous to moving though a maze than following a road map. Major elements of restructuring emerge within this school's model. Grade-level teams coordinated through a central school governance team facilitate shared decision-making and planning by principal, teachers, and parents. Students are also empowered through classroom forums and a student council. Despite the auspices of a state-sponsored grant awarded to a good school with strong leadership, motivated staff, strong parental support, and a proven record of instructional effectiveness, successful restructuring is not assured. Lacking the power to effect radical change, people in this setting were limited to small scale "tinkering" rather than restructuring. A summary of data suggests that: (1) Cultural readiness of the community, school district and school site are critical to successful restructuring. A real transfer of power may not be possible without such readiness. (2) Restructuring involves a redefinition of roles and relationships among people--particularly that between teacher and parent; teacher and principal. (3) The opportunity for developing inter-personal relationships among roles can be a valuable by-product of the training process. (4) Inclusion of all "stakeholders" especially central office personnel, school board members, and less-involved parents is essential for successful restructuring. (5) Models of school restructuring developed within The Massachusetts Carnegie Schools Grant Program may be of limited value. Restructuring as a strategy for improving the effectiveness of less successful schools is not demonstrated within this model.