Comparison Study On The Effectiveness Of Planning Between Chinese And American School Administration

Since Shenzhen is one of the most economically developed cities in mainland China, the city's educational investment is also relatively high. Because of the foresight and sagacity of the Education Bureau's leaders, I was sent as a front-line educator to Canada in 2001 and United States in 2004 for three months of observation and research at each location. While in the United States, I did an extensive case study and field survey in Orange County, California. The school district in Orange Country has a similar economic strength as the school district in Luohu, Shenzhen. Both have modernized education concepts, wonderful social conditions, and a colorful, diverse culture. All these similarities provided truthfulness and practicability to my comparison study in the area of education management planning. Planning is a crucial, common sense link in school management for both Chinese and American education managers. Educators in both countries have paid heavy attention to this crucial link during their management period. However, many "planning effectiveness" discrepancies were found during this data analysis and case study comparison.The first chapter of this thesis starts with a detailed education planning document from one of the Orange Country schools. It shows the quintessence of the American managing concept - the effectiveness of planning ahead. This not only provides the motivation and the background of this thesis, but it also explains the research purposes and methods.The second chapter includes details of the research process and comparisons of both the Chinese and American schools' substantial planning results. The research was done around the "planning" topic through many site observations, key personnel interviews, and case studies in both countries. The research especially focuses on the benefit of planning, agreement, results and process topics. This section also compares and analyzes the difference between the administration methods in both countries and explores their advantages and disadvantages. It focuses on presenting the problems in the...