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Staff appraisal takes place in most organisations. For schools-and teachersinformal appraisal is not a new concept. What is new is the intention of government-first signalled in a WhitePaper in 1983-to introduce a formal, systematic and compulsory system of teacher appraisal across the whole of England and Wales. In this article the progress that is being made towards securing this end will be reviewed. In order to place this review in a wider context, examples of the use of appraisal techniques from the Civil Service, business and commerce have been included. In commercial organisations, appraisal tends to be utilitarian, emphasising the potential benefit to the organisation, as well as to the individual. Appraisal is considered to be the normal way of managing staff and the tasks being appraised are, in the main, observable, produce tangible results and are carried out in the public domain. In contrast, in the educational sphere, much of the teacher's work is less tangible, with fewer obvious results and is carried out with large groups of pupils (and few peers) in the largely private world of the classroom. This article also includes a brief description of the national pilot appraisal schemes initiated by government in 1986 and carried out in six Local EducationAuthorities in England, as well as drawing on the Cambridge evaluation of this programme. A number of key issues arising from the evaluation are noted. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications for a national system of appraisal of government policy. This policy intends that, by August 1995, a pruned-down system of biennial appraisal for all teachers will be in force. Implications for teachers, head teachers, governors, local authorities as well as for pupils and parents are considered.

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The study builds on earlier work which considered changes in the use of staff other than teachers (associate staff) in maintained primary and secondary schools. The focus of the study is on the introduction of staffing innovations (how they originated, how they were implemented, perceived advantages and difficulties, estimated cost effectiveness) in a new kind of educational institution-the City Technology College. The authors seek to illuminate theories of implementing change in a contemporary educational setting. The article reports on the first year's work and indicates some emergent issues.