Overview of Anecdotes for Hypothesizing Exercises

(Complete anecdotes are found on exercise sheets)

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edited 9/27/10

Anecdote 1: drop in attendance It is April 21st when Principal Harold Smith of Stanton JHS worriedly realizes that attendance has dropped off over the last three weeks from a norm of 80% down to 72%. "We have to deal with this," he announces at the weekly faculty meeting, ...

Anecdote 8: a risky decision? Wilson University President Mila Sharp is away on sabbatical when the worst snowstorm of the decade swoops down on campus at 11 AM. The three vice presidents, equal in rank, are besieged with requests to close the University early and cancel ...

Anecdote 2 involving parents Principal Jack Daniels of Frankling HS is concerned with the low standard test scores produced by his students. The school average is 480 out of 800 points. In order to involve the community more in the school, he obtains an $8000 grant to pay parents ...

Anecdote 9: back to basics With Pennsburg State U faced with mounting maintenance costs, newly appointed trustee Roger Williams, a retired manufacturer, calls the Board's attention to research that shows that in schools whose graduates have the best GRE scores...

Anecdote 3: schoolboard politics Titus Glutes, the head of the Wellsboro Chamber of Commerce is reported in a local newspaper to have said of the school superindent, Sara Hamilton, that she "lacks a sense of community".

Anecdote 10: control costs The Public School Board of Metropolis, from a yearly one billion dollar budget, allots $20,000 to each of 150 schools as a Principal's Discretionary Fund. Those funds are audited each year by a duo team of accountants from the prestigious firm ...

Anecdote 4: refocussing mission Superintendent Janice Short at the opening Fall Board meeting of Hawthorne School District declares that the district is "rededicating itself to excellence."

Anecdote 11: program evaluation Will Wundt, the forward-looking school superintendent of Yarlsborough, has instituted a new program of language instruction in the district, despite resistance from some of the older language teachers. He experimented first ...

Anecdote 5: teaching styles Only three miles from prestigious Olympus Academy stands T.M. Penury High School. The teachers at Penury tend to fall into two groups: "traditionalists", who accept no excuses from students for deviation from a strict academic code ...

Anecdote 12: avoiding work? Miss Morelli is dismayed to find out that some of the best students in her German III class, who have had her at least two years, have not signed up for German IV. Instead, they are filling in their rosters with notoriously easy electives....

Anecdote 6: refocussing college mission President James Avery at the opening Fall convocation of Hawthorne University, held under the Ancient Beech in the courtyard of ivy-covered Seminary Hall, declares that the University is "rededicating itself to the mission of its founders."

Anecdote 13: avoiding evaluation In response to great public concern, the Synecdoche School District in conjunction with Synecdoche State University, launches a coordinated program expanding formerly perfunctory efforts in the areas of sex education and conflict resolution. The SEXCON program,...

Anecdote 7: surprise search After several months of escalating gang violence in the neighborhood, the principal of Madison High School has the police conduct a surprise yet thorough search for weapons late in the school day. Those found with weapons -- mostly knives...

Anecdote 14: ranking schools The STUSORT, a nationally known set of secondary school achievement tests, is updated annually for statistical reasons to remove any items that more than 50% of those tested have gotten correctly. Despite test publisher warnings to the contrary, ...

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