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As schools, their teachers, and outside facilitators redesign jobs and incorporate technology to extend the reach of excellent teachers to more students and develop an Opportunity Culture for all, choosing the right school models is just one part of the task. The human experience--and experience in education--says that even perfect design will not work if teachers do not grasp it, embrace it, and contribute to its success. Understanding the key theories of organization change management can help schools working in different contexts make changes successfully, for students and teachers. Change management is just what it sounds like: the process of planning and executing major change steps in an organization to achieve the organization's goals, maximize the positive impact on employees who do the work after a change, and help leaders and staff make the new ways become a habit. Theories of change management abound. This brief summarizes the key elements of eight major strands: (1) Job Redesign; (2) Disruptive Change; (3) Good to Great; (4) Total Quality Management; (5) Learning Organizations; (6) Reengineering/Business Process Redesign; (7) Turnarounds; and (8) General Change Management. A bibliography is included.

School principals are second only to teachers among school-based factors that influence student achievement and they are critical to attracting and retaining effective teachers and other school staff. Yet in the past, federal policymakers haven't given school leadership much attention. This reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) should ensure that all 50 states develop definitions of principal effectiveness and next-generation principal evaluation systems that identify effective leaders based on student achievement and other rigorous measures of outcomes and practice. It should also ensure that states hold principal preparation programs accountable for preparing leaders that are effective in schools. While defining and evaluating principal effectiveness is not sufficient to ensuring strong leadership, it is a critical step to creating a coherent, statewide vision of effective school leadership that can inform other policies. States will also need to use these systems to drive all aspects of their human capital systems--from certification to compensation to professional development. Practitioners and researchers are continuing to learn about the best measures of effective leadership and next-generation evaluation systems. Therefore, this memo is intended to offer general principles for principal evaluation that signal the important elements that should be included. It is clear that ESEA needs to set forth the conditions that will allow for a dramatic improvement in teaching and learning and provide incentives as well as the freedom for states, districts, and schools to change and innovate. (Contains 3 endnotes.)

Economic Growth Challenge / Innovation Incentive, as proposed by the Governor's Commission on Higher Education and the Economy, is a new line item involving reallocation of current higher education funding plus matching levels of performance funding to achieve a major restructuring and refocusing of Ohio's portfolio of doctoral research programs. It is the intent of this line item ultimately to build world-class research excellence and catalyze Ohio's economic growth in concert with the Third Frontier Project. The required reallocation of funds at the institutional level will, by definition, result in the downsizing, or complete elimination, of doctoral programs that are not performing at, or above, a level consistent with national norms. This report describes the anticipated significant positive outcomes to be achieved over a ten-year period; the primary objectives of this innovative incentive program; the competitive review process; expectation values for Innovation Incentive Program awards; and application procedure. Appended are: (A) Program Statement Guidelines; (B) Internal Doctoral Program Reallocations by Institution; and (C) Economic Growth Challenge Planning Committee.

The mission of the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) is to ensure that all students acquire the knowledge, skills and values necessary to live rich and fulfilling lives as responsible, productive and enlightened members of a democratic society. It is the vision of the District of Columbia School System that it will be known as one of the best urban school districts in the country. It will offer an outstanding education to every student within a safe, healthy and educationally appropriate environment, and will be among the first major urban school districts to eliminate the achievement gap among all sub groups of the student population. The District of Columbia Schools will dynamically engage parents and the community in the lives of students and schools, and will be the first and best choice for families living in the District of Columbia. This Master Education Plan details how the District of Columbia Public Schools intend to achieve this vision, and goals by addressing eight areas critical to education excellence: (1) strong learning standards, curriculum, instruction and assessments--a challenging academic core for all students; (2) teachers and principals who are prepared to deliver high-quality instruction to every student; (3) a culture of inclusion that offers a wide range of learning opportunities for diverse students; (4) increased supports and assistance that meet students' individual needs; (5) partnerships that take advantage of the Capitol City's global stature and many community assets; (6) schools that are organized in ways that better serve students and families; (7) an accountability system that more clearly defines the responsibilities of the central office and the schools, and proposes a series of interventions to turn around low-performing schools; and (8) a commitment to equity that ensures that every student has access to an appropriate range of educational resources. For each of these eight interlocking areas, the plan provides a picture of progress to date and identifies steps DCPS must take to achieve sustainable, systemic reform. It also lays the groundwork for further discussion of how DCPS can best use its facilities and other resources to support the necessary changes and provide safe, healthy and effective learning environments. Some of the strategies addressed by this Plan will be implemented immediately; others will require additional planning. All interventions will be regularly monitored and evaluated; as necessary, revisions will be made. To help the community monitor action, the superintendent will present an annual progress report. This report concludes with a discussion and outline of future steps to be taken as well as budget implications. [This Plan was produced by the staff of DCPS under the direction of Michelle J. Walker, Chief, Strategic Planning and Policy.]

This document contains three papers on strategic human resource (HR) development. "Strategic HR Orientation and Firm Performance in India" (Kuldeep Singh) reports findings from a study of Indian business executives that suggests there is a positive link between HR policies and practices and workforce motivation and loyalty and sustainable competitive advantage. "Human Resource Development Issues Emerging From an E-Business Corporate Entrepreneurship Team" (Jeffrey S. Lewis, Gary D. Geroy) examines the results of interviews with e-business personnel operating within traditional corporations and the application of those results to HR planning. Work in e-business is fast paced and exciting; collaboration and relationship building are mandatory; teamwork is typical; and workers are characterized as entrepreneurial. HR must be managed and deployed differently in the digital economy in order to support such characteristics. "Transforming Human Resources Into a Strategic Player on Campus From Theory to Practice: A Case Study" (Val M. Berry) presents an overview from a case study of a HR unit in higher education and how it was transformed into a strategic institutional partner through utilization of organizational change approaches. All three papers contain bibliographies, one of which substantial. (AJ)

Informal mentoring is dependent on the relationship developed between mentor and protege, but job needs and task designs within organizations may also define and construct them. The intent is to foster organizational goals and help new employees become acclimated to workplace culture while learning from experienced practitioners. How to choose mentors and proteges is problematic. Since informal mentoring has tended to exclude women, people of color, people of other social classes, and those of different sexual orientation, formal mentoring programs have sought to address exclusion by pairing proteges from historically marginalized groups with mentors who are mid- or high-level employees. Senior employees may be chosen to serve as mentors because they best represent corporate culture and dominant cultural values; proteges may also be chosen based on dominant organizational culture. Marginalized employees may never have the opportunity for formal mentoring. Formal mentoring may provide opportunities for previously marginalized groups to participate in mentoring relationships from which they learn and receive career help and psychosocial support, but they may encourage unquestioning replication of organizational values and hegemonic culture by a new generation of employees. Power issues arise as formal mentoring programs are planned, such as whose interests are primarily served, whether mentoring programs are set up to manage learning or empower learners, and who should decide the mentors and proteges to be included. (Contains 29 references.) (YLB)

The Research and Planning (RP) Group for the California Community Colleges (CCC) supports the Partnership for Excellence (PFE) effort to improve student success as measured by the goals, yet the RP Group sees the goals as limited in scope regarding the full work of the CCC. In addition, the RP Group is realistic about the political forces at work that do not necessarily find the systems efforts and its own appraisal of results credible. This document outlines what the RP Group perceives as risks of inappropriate assignment of community colleges to a position in a ranking system: (1) over-complexity and oversimplification; (2) premature measurement; (3) misidentification of performance outliers; (4) harm to intended beneficiaries: students and communities; (5) potential for a significant error in fact that is likely to be interpreted as performance failure or deficiency; (6) assuming the general applies to the specific; (7) lack of robustness in the model and instability of measurement over time; and (8) interpretability and meaningfulness. The RP Group does not recommend abandoning the task at hand, but rather suggests that a series of longer-term steps be used to address the issue. Some of these steps include using cautionary language at the outset, refraining from premature application of rewards and punitive measures, and improving data sources and measures. (Author/NB)

This report provides an overview of the Department of Education's (ED) progress toward four main goals: (1) help all children reach challenging academic standards; (2) build a solid foundation for learning for all children; (3) ensure access to postsecondary education and lifelong learning; and (4) make ED a high-performance organization. The document provides a concrete description of strategies being used to reach these goals, presents plans for fiscal year 2001, describes key strategies and performance measures, and identifies department-wide issues. The report is divided into four sections, each of which describes in detail the programs that are in place to help the ED reach its goals. For goal 1, seven objectives are listed, such as creating safe, disciplined, and drug-free schools; and offering more public school choices to families. The four objectives listed for goal 2 include the objective that all children will enter school ready to learn. The four stated objectives for goal 3 all address the need to help students succeed in postsecondary education. Goal 4 has seven objectives listed, such as the one that states that ED employees are highly skilled and high performing. Further information on improving information systems, on coordinating with other agencies, on data-quality standards, and other details are provided. (RJM)

Accountability systems target effective school management among other key aspects of the school-improvement process that impact teacher performance. In treating this aspect of accountability, it asks, "What do school improvement plans reveal about schools' responses to accountability and probation?" The school-improvement plan (SIP)--usually required to codify a school's envisioned improvement design-- is a common feature among accountability systems in Maryland, Kentucky, and the city of San Francisco. This comparative analysis links specific patterns of schools' plans to specific design features of the accountability system. All three systems bring performance accountability to schools via external imposition but differ in the way they use different performance indicators, selection criteria for probation, and capacity building measures. The report also explores whether differences in the accountability systems (the presence or absence of specific design features) can be associated with differential patterns in school-improvement plans. (Contains 52 references.) (DFR)

This booklet lists the interim performance objectives of the Office of Student Financial Assistance (Department of Education) as required by the Higher Education Act Amendments of 1998. These interim objectives are intended to guide the office until the end of the September 1999 fiscal year. The first objective is to improve customer satisfaction. Indicators of success include maintaining the quality of current services as a baseline and taking new steps to improve services. The second objective is to reduce the overall cost of delivering student aid. Among the 11 indicators of success listed are establishing a baseline estimate of overall costs and using performance-based contracts in all major new awards. The third objective is to transform the Student Financial Assistance Office into a performance-based organization (PBO). The 10 indicators of success include: testing all major new publications, training materials, and electronic products with users prior to release; and developing a human resources and organizational plan for the PBO. Also provided for each indicator of success are methods for measuring success and the name of the individual responsible for each indicator. Graphs illustrate trends in many of the indicators. (DB)

This study reviewed the literature to trace the evolution and life cycles of seven management techniques related to higher education. The seven case studies involved analysis of a selected sample of periodical, monograph, and technical literature from 1960 to the present. The literature base on each management technique was reviewed in reference to the following aspects: essential characteristics of the management innovation, circumstances in which the innovation originally appeared, diffusion of the innovation into higher education, outcomes of the innovation in its original and higher education settings, and reasons for eventual abandonment of the technique. The seven management innovations considered were: (1) program planning budgeting system; (2) zero-based budgeting; (3) management by objectives; (4) strategic planning; (5) total quality management/continuous quality improvement; (6) business process reengineering; and (7) benchmarking. The analysis proposes stages in the life cycle of management fads within organizational sectors, suggests the lagged phases through which fads are diffused between the nonacademic and the academic sectors, and discusses similarities and differences in the fad adoption process in both academic and nonacademic systems. (Contains 28 references.) (DB)

This paper discusses policy issues faced by two-year colleges in the state of Washington during the first year of implementation of performance funding. Four key policy questions were reviewed: (1) the reward versus entitlement paradigm shift, which forces educators to alter expectations about "entitlement" to higher education funding and accept allocation based on performance; (2) state versus local priorities that can cause conflicts between state-level approaches to performance and autonomy at the college or district level; (3) whether performance funding motivates colleges to improve performance; and (4) what happens when performance funding results in reallocation of resources away from nonperforming institutions. In Washington state several practical difficulties were encountered in designing the performance funding system for the state's community and technical colleges. They included complexity, timeliness problems, and the problems inherent in a funding system based on unstable, quantitative indicators. Despite these problems, the first year of performance funding resulted in new understandings of student development and highlighted areas of the system that needed improvement. An excerpt from a report on performance-based funding by Brenda Norman Albright focusing on strategies for using performance measures and outlining key principles is appended. (CH)

At Pennsylvania College of Technology (PCT), long range planning is used to define institutional philosophy and mission and determine strategies to make the best use of available resources and implement actions to fulfill institutional mission. This document presents PCT's long-range plan for 1997-2000 in three parts. The first part describes long range planning and its use at PCT; reviews the structure and use of the plan; provides PCT's philosophy, mission, and vision statements; analyzes strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats facing the college; and discusses major initiatives for the 1997-98 academic year. Part II provides the body of the long range plan, listing college goals and tasks for the following areas: (1) instruction, related to standards, curriculum portfolios, outcomes assessment, foundation skills, and instructional delivery; (2) student support, including recruitment, retention, nontraditional students, matriculation, student life, and services; (3) academic support, related to the program development process, evaluation, staff development, media/computer use, and academic support services; (4) institutional support, related to executive management, budgets, human resources, physical plant, general administration, quality assurance, diversity, and marketing; and (5) public service, including technical consultation and enrichment programming. For each goal, specific tasks and a status report as of 1997 are included. Finally, Part III provides a planning manual for PCT staff, detailing processes for conducting research and evaluations; revising the philosophy, mission statements, and goals; creating, revising, and reporting long range planning task statements; and developing objectives. (BCY)

Active between 1993 and 1996, the Promoting Academic Student Success (PASS) Program was aimed at reducing the high percentage of failure experienced by academic probation students at Corning Community College (New York). These students typically came from non supportive environments, possessed academic deficiencies, and suffered from feelings of alienation and hopelessness. Based on management by objectives (MBO) methodology, the PASS program was devised to "save" students from academic oblivion and improve retention rates, thereby increasing revenue for the school. Students were assigned to groups of about fifteen, supervised by two leaders. Group meetings occurred at least once every two weeks. Constant contact with PASS staff, individual attention, and a sense of group commitment were emphasized. Students achieved self-command and a sense of personal control through training in time and money management, creative problem solving, study skills, and goal setting in a friendly, relaxed environment. Though the PASS program is now defunct, 32.4% of the participants are pending graduation compared to the national average graduation rate for probationary students of 13%. Barriers to the program's success included lack of both faculty and financial support. (YKH)

At Pennsylvania College of Technology (PCT), in Williamsport, long range planning is used to define institutional philosophy and mission and determine strategies to make the best use of available resources and implement actions to fulfill institutional mission. This document presents PCT's long-range plan for 1995-98 in three parts. Following an introduction, the first part reviews the structure and use of the plan; provides PCT's philosophy, mission, and vision statements; and discusses the college's major initiatives for the 1995-96 academic year. Part II lists college goals and tasks for the following five areas: instruction, student support, academic support, institutional support, and public support. Each area includes individual goals, lists of tasks to reach the goals, and a status report on any achievements or accomplishments that occurred from the period July 1, 1994 to June 30, 1995. The goals presented in this part are related to outcomes assessment, student retention, student life, program evaluation, staff development, human resources, physical plant, and technical consultation. Finally, part III provides a planning manual for PCT staff, detailing the processes for research and evaluation; for revising the college's philosophy, mission statements, and goals; for creating, revising, and reporting long range planning task statements; and for developing objectives. (MAB)

In utilizing the theory of management by objectives (MBO), common goals are set by both managers and subordinates, individual members' areas of responsibilities are defined, and resource allocations are made according to the planning and achievement of objectives. At academic institutions, common benefits of MBO include measurable objectives jointly set by faculty and administrators that increase motivation and provide allocation of institutional resources and rewards for performance. At DeKalb College (Georgia), where an MBO-oriented system of management is in place, a study was conducted of faculty from the former Mathematics and Science division and middle and higher administrators to determine their opinions regarding the functioning of MBO. Survey results, based on responses from 28 faculty and 10 administrators, including 7 department chairs, 2 division deans, and the college president, included the following: (1) six faculty and two administrators were not aware that the college used MBO; (2) 14 respondents felt that objectives were declared in terms of specific achievements, while 21 agreed that completion dates were required for most objectives; (3) most faculty reported that they had not been trained in the principles of objective setting and MBO; and (4) with respect to MBO's improvement of motivation and communication, the majority of respondents gave mixed results. The results indicated that while the system essentially followed MBO principles, efforts to inform faculty regarding the system should be improved. An MBO pyramid of levels and goals from the college is appended. (TGI)

At Pennsylvania College of Technology (PCT), in Williamsport, long range planning is used to define institutional philosophy and mission and determine strategies to make the best use of available resources and implement actions to fulfill institutional mission. This document presents PCT's long-range plan for 1993-96 in three parts. Following an introduction, the first part reviews the structure and use of the plan; provides PCT's philosophy, mission, and vision statements; and discusses the college's major initiatives for the 1993-94 academic year. Part II provides the body of the long range plan, listing college goals and tasks for the following five areas: instruction, student support, academic support, institutional support, and public service. Each area includes individual goals, lists of tasks to reach the goals, and a status report on any achievements or accomplishments that occurred from the period July 1, 1991 to June 30, 1992. The goals presented in this part are related to outcomes assessment, student retention, student life, program evaluation, staff development, human resources, physical plant, and technical consultation. Finally, part III provides a planning manual for PCT staff, detailing the processes for research and evaluation; for revising the philosophy, mission statements, and goals; for creating, revising, and reporting long range planning task statements; and for developing objectives. (PAA)

The composite systematic functional objective career exploration program model integrates various career development theoretical approaches. These approaches emphasize self-concept, life values, personality, the environment, and academic achievement and training as separate functions in explaining career development. Current social development in Malaysia emphasizes a philosophical thinking to formulate a society that is caring, besides being able to meet the challenges in the year 2000. The implication for the profession is obvious. Changing attitudes, incorporating good moral values, and challenges in meeting a social system with high technology usage requires a competent counselor. Career counselors must be prepared to incorporate their skills with the new thinking in order to achieve the expected integrated goals. Self-awareness in the composite systematic functional objective career development model is acquired through a pragmatic approach. For example, when the core emphasis utilized personality and the environment, other activities incorporating self-concept and trait and factor are integrated as supporting elements. The management by objective career development exploration system forms the foundation of the implementation program for the model. (Four stages of implementation are considered: (1) Stage 1: Definition of objective; (2) Stage 2: Program activities; (3) Stage 3: Budget control; and (4) Stage 4: Evaluation of the management system. (ABL)