Frank W. Lutz

Predicting Public Dissatisfaction: A Study of School Board Member Defeat

Using data collected in 95 Ohio school districts by Hunt (1980), this study reanalyzed those data, examined the reasons for Hunts inability to predict school board member incumbent defeat, and developed a model that would have predicted those Ohio school board ekctions.

The Measurement of Principal Rule Administration Behavior and Its Relationship to Educational Leadership

A report of research on the theoretical development, instrumentation, and subsequent investigations of the rule administration behavior of public school principals is the basis of this article. Findings indicate that principals can reduce conflict and increase leadership perception by utilization of representative rule administration.

The Dissat-Factor: Recent Discoveries in the Dissatisfaction Theory.

During an AERA symposium, Douglas Mitchell (1988) charged dissatisfaction theory to live up to the expectations of it. He suggested that it was perhaps time to abandon the theory because it had not been able to predict the political upheavals it described. Coming from one who has contributed significantly to the theory, and is probably the one who labeled it, his suggestion that it should perhaps be abandoned because of its failure to provide reliable prediction indeed deserves serious consideration. This article deals with that assertion in two ways. First, it reports the first instance of actually predicting school board member incumbent defeat. Second, it suggests why prediction, in its absolute statistical sense, is not the only goal or perhaps even an achievable expectation for such a social/political theory.

A Quarterly Note Funding and Educational Administration Programs

Whenever a realist considers the program of preservice training in education he must immediately devote major attention to funding possibilities. This is true whether the plan envisions an expansion of the old program or the development of an innovative program. Of course the expansion of the old program is easier and cheaper and it can be funded almost entirely by increased student enrollment. Innovative programs are something else. They may even include a

Second Thoughts: a Letter to the Editor

Several months ago, David Selden, president of the American Federation of Teachers, set forth in American Teacher his ideas on how to make the principalship more compatible with the teaching profession. While I respect Mr. Selden and the union movement, I believe that this article is not as well thought-out as most of his statements are. I welcome your invitation to publish my comments on Selden’s ideas. No one who looks carefully at principal behavior can claim