END OF AN ERA
The ERIC Clearinghouse on Educational Management Ends 37 Years of Continuous Operation at the University of Oregon
On December 31, 2003, the ERIC Clearinghouse on Educational Management at the University of Oregon will cease operation. Because of restructuring within the U.S. Department of Education, all 16 subject-specific Clearinghouses within the ERIC system will close. In their place, a new ERIC offering fewer services will emerge, to be operated by a single contractor. Services of the new ERIC can be accessed through ED's website (http://www.eric.ed.gov).
If you have come to rely on this Clearinghouse's website resources, or you wish to continue purchasing our publications, be assured that these services will continue, for the indefinite future. See the accompanying details about our new name and website address.
One of the original Clearinghouses in the ERIC system, ours has been serving the education community since June 1966. Our mission has evolved and grown over the years, but our goal has always been to find new ways to better serve the interests and needs of our diverse and loyal patrons. We're confident that we have met the challenge.
To sustain our lengthy operation at the University of Oregon, we have had to compete successfully for the Clearinghouse contract in national competitions held every 3-5 years, against proposals from such institutions as the University of Chicago, the University of Wisconsin, New York University, and Vanderbilt University.
After 37 years, allow us to indulge in a little boasting about our achievements as well as to thank those people and organizations who have made our work possible.
Since our Clearinghouse was established, we have indexed and written abstracts of more than 28,000 documents and nearly 40,000 journal articles, all of which are searchable in the ERIC database.
We have published 935 educational products. Approximately 150 of these are monographs, books, or other major information analysis materials. A total of nearly 9 million copies of these products have been distributed through our own printings and those of our educational partners. The content, readability, and attractive designs of these publications have earned numerous awards.
Our flagship book School Leadership: Handbook for Excellence, now in its third edition, is widely used as a text for training preservice and inservice administrators. The book epitomizes our approach to information analysis. Roland Barth, then codirector of the Principals' Center at Harvard University, paid the Clearinghouse the highest compliment when he said that this book "succeeded admirably in making the research community comprehensible to school practitioners."
In 1994, Professor Edwin Bridges of Stanford University asked us to publish his books on problem-based learning. Through the years, his books have had a significant impact on the dissemination of this innovative method of training school administrators. When asked by a colleague why he chose the ERIC Clearinghouse on Educational Management instead of one of the prestigious educational publishers, Dr. Bridges explained that, indeed, he could have given the book to Teachers College Press, which wanted it, or to any other number of publishers. He said he chose this Clearinghouse for three reasons: "I will have an expert editor; they will get it in print fast; and they will promote it."
Tens of thousands of school and district leaders have profited professionally from the many and varied Clearinghouse products. Two quick examples come to mind. We have produced more than 50 issues of Research Roundup for the National Association of Elementary School Principals, which distributes them to its members. The National Association of Secondary School Principals has printed and distributed more than a dozen ERIC Digests to its members.
Over the past nearly four decades, we also have been privileged to prepare products for members of the American Association of School Administrators, University Council for Educational Administration, American Educational Research Association, Education Law Association (formerly National Organization on Legal Problems of Education), and many other organizations. We have enjoyed working with many outstanding executive directors and publications directors at these fine institutions.
Since 1998, our ERIC Digests have been translated into Spanish for Latin American educators. Under an agreement that began in that year, 2,000 copies of each ERIC Digest have been distributed throughout Central and South America by the Latin American Center for Development, Education, and Culture at the Universidad de Playa Ancha, a state-run university in Valparaiso, Chile.
An average of 200,000 copies of Clearinghouse materials have been printed or reprinted each year by professional organizations, representing the bulk of our total dissemination. In effect, every federal dollar invested in printing these products has been matched by $8 from professional organizations for printing costs alone.
In recent years, the tremendous increase in accessibility made possible by the Internet has enabled us to expand our outreach, through our website, to patrons in the United States and to educators throughout the world. Each quarter, about 140,000 people from 40 countries were visiting our site. They were downloading an average of 30,000 books and other materials from the free, full-text section of our website.
These few examples, and many others we could furnish, demonstrate our commitment to the highest quality educational materials. It is this commitment that has made us one of the leading publishers of information on educational management in the country.
But as important as the products are, the people who have made them possible are even more important. While it's impossible to thank individually all the extraordinary authors, editors, graphic designers, indexers, program coordinators, data specialists, IT specialists, accounting clerks, and student workers who have contributed to the Clearinghouse's success, it is essential to acknowledge three individuals.
Professor Philip Piele, director, has led and given the Clearinghouse its character since January 1967. Stuart Smith, associate director, has overseen the publications program since September 1967. 0And Mary Lou Finne, user services coordinator, has kept the information flowing since 1969. These three have formed the core of the Clearinghouse. Their scholarship, professionalism, and dedication have shaped and exemplified the Clearinghouse's mission.
As a result of attempting to respond effectively to ERIC users, who continually raise interesting issues and pose stimulating questions, all of us at the Clearinghouse on Educational Management have had our own understanding of a multitude of education-related topics enriched and informed. So, as our Clearinghouse completes its mission as one of the original components of the ERIC system, we want to profoundly thank all those inside and outside of education who have enriched our personal and professional lives. We also want to express our best wishes for success to those who will be leading ERIC into a new era.
And we still look forward, as long as the demand exists, to offering our website and print resources to you, our loyal patrons, through the new Clearinghouse on Educational Policy and Management.
ERIC/CEM becomes CEPM
Beginning January 2, 2004, you may still access our website and purchase all the same publications that were produced under our ERIC contract, even though we will no longer operate as an ERIC Clearinghouse. We will take on a new identity as the Clearinghouse on Educational Policy and Management, operated by the College of Education, University of Oregon.
Our new website address will be cepm.uoregon.edu and our shipping and mailing addresses will remain the same:
Regular postal delivery: Clearinghouse on Educational Policy and Management, 5207 University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403-5207
Physical delivery: Clearinghouse on Educational Policy and Management, 975 High Street, Suite 100, Eugene, Oregon 97401
Phone (541) 346-5044
Fax (541) 346-2334
Because the U.S. Department of Education requires that all ERIC Clearinghouse websites close on December 19, from that date until January 2 you will find on the site only an announcement of the transition. But beginning on January 2 you may go to http://cepm.uoregon.edu/ for access to all the resources formerly produced by the ERIC Clearinghouse on Educational Management. So next year we look forward to serving you as the Clearinghouse on Educational Policy and Management (CEPM).
ERIC Clearinghouse on
Educational Management
- ERIC/CEM CD-ROM Electronic Library @ $59.00
- Support for Home-Based Education: Pioneering Partnerships Between Public Schools and Families Who Instruct Their Children at Home, A Guide for State Policymakers, Local Boards of Education, and School Administrators by Patricia M. Lines @ $11.00
- Policy Report: School Dress Codes and Uniform Policies @ $5.00
- Policy Perspective: The New Patterns of American Educational Governance: From Local Control to State and Federal Direction of Education Policy, by David T. Conley @ $7.50
- School Leadership: Handbook for Excellence, 3rd ed., edited by Stuart C. Smith and Philip K. Piele
- copies of Cloth @ $29.95
- copies of Paper @ $19.95
- ERIC Digests. Single copies of these ERIC Digests are free, but you must enclose a postage/handling fee of $3.00 to cover the Clearinghouse's expenses. This fee is waived if (1) you enclose a stamped and self-addressed envelope or (2) you order other materials from this order form.
- 167 Scientifically Based Research
- 168 Performance-Driven Budgeting: The Example of New York City's Schools
- 169 The Mandate To Help Low-Performing Schools
- 170 Inducting School Leaders
- 171 Afterschool Programs
- 172 Improving Principal Evaluation
- 173 Leaders for Hard-to-Staff Schools
How to Order: You may place an order by sending a check or money order, mailing or faxing a purchase order, or calling with a Visa or MasterCard number. Add 10% for S&H (minimum $4.00). Make payment to University of Oregon/ERIC and mail to ERIC/CEM, 5207 University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403-5207. Shipping is by UPS ground or equivalent.
Telephone (541) 346-5044 . Fax (541) 346-2334
Receive a 10 percent discount off the single-copy price when you order online (with Visa or MasterCard) from our website-your gateway to information about educational policy and management.
http://eric.uoregon.edu
Secure Your Set of Clearinghouse Resources with 2003 Electronic Library
We refer to the 2003 edition of the Educational Management Electronic Library as the CD's Memorial Edition, since it is the final product not only of the Electronic Library but of our long run as an ERIC Clearinghouse. And, of course, what better way to preserve the information resources we have produced through our ERIC contract and make them permanently available to our loyal clientele.
The ERIC/CEM Electronic Library contains all the books and monographs we have produced during the past fourteen years, plus ERIC Digests and Research Roundups since 1992 and 1996, respectively.
The 2003 edition boasts 26 new publications (now totalling 150), along with hundreds of new abstracts of documents and journal articles that we have added to the ERIC database in the past year. A breakdown of the contents is as follows:
- 24 books (2 are new)
- 96 ERIC Digests (15 are new)
- 27 Research Roundups (8 are new)
- 4 Policy Reports (2 are new)
- Policy Perspective (new)
- Abstracts of all journal articles and documents entered into the ERIC database by our Clearinghouse between 1994 and fall 2003
One of the two new books is available only in this Electronic Library because time does not allow us to complete a print edition.
Leaders for America's Schools: Training, Recruiting, and Selecting Principals for Success is a new work by Clearinghouse research analyst Larry Lashway. Drawing from a knowledge base on school leadership that has greatly expanded in recent years, Lashway surveys current issues and explores new practices in preparing, recruiting, and selecting school leaders.
The project began as a revision of Mark Anderson's monograph on principals published by the Clearinghouse in 1991. The title of that immensely popular book is Principals: How To Train, Recruit, Select, Induct, and Evaluate Leaders for America's Schools (also on the CD). Although Lashway's new work has gradually taken a somewhat different form and covers fewer topics, it nonetheless is built on the foundation established by Dr. Anderson.
Leaders for America's Schools is available only in electronic (PDF) format on this 2003 CD-ROM. No print edition is planned.
The second book added to this edition, Support for Home-Based Education: Pioneering Partnerships Between Public Schools and Families Who Instruct Their Children at Home, by Patricia Lines, was published earlier this year. Lines leads school boards, district executives, and school principals through the process of developing mutually respectful, financially sound partnerships with homeschooling families. In the foreword, Henry M. Levin characterizes the book as "insightful, intelligent, balanced, and helpful for guiding public policy on a topic that is often highly contentious."
All twenty-four books on the CD are saved in PDF format; most other materials are presented in both PDF and HTML. The CD is readable on either Windows or Macintosh platforms and has a stand-alone search feature.
To learn how to order your own copy of this final edition of the ERIC/CEM Electronic Library, see the order form on page 3 of this newsletter.
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