Planning is not only an aspect of our day-to-day lives, it represents a critical aspect of performance on many high-level tasks. Although few of us would dispute the need for planning, the psychology of planning remains relatively undeveloped. With this point in mind, the intent in the present article was to review the available literature on planning. The authors begin by examining alternative models of planning and delineating their implications for performance. Subsequently, the findings obtained in various studies of planning are reviewed with respect to 8 key questions ranging from when planning is useful to how errors in planning should be minimized. The implications of current answers to these questions are discussed in terms of research needs and development of a more comprehensive theoretical understanding of performance in planning.

The effects of traumatic loss on children who reported a friend or acquaintance killed in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing of a federal office building were examined. Twenty-seven children who lost a friend or acquaintance and 27 demographically matched controls were assessed eight to ten months after the bombing. All but three of the children continued to experience posttraumatic stress symptoms. Those who lost a friend watched significantly more bombing-related television coverage than those without losses. Those who lost a friend had significantly more posttraumatic stress symptoms at the time of the assessment than those who lost an acquaintance. Parents and those working with children should be alert to the impact of loss even when it involves nonrelatives.

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In December 2004, the Amarillo Globe Newsreported on a Dallas Morning News story that analyzed state-mandated test scores from across Texas (Benton & Hacker, 2004; Wilson, 2004). According the Amarillo Globe News, the Dallas Morning News study implicated Sunrise Elementary School, in Amarillo, Texas, by labeling their Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills scores as “unusual.” The Amarillo Globe News noted that Sunrise, a Title I elementary school, placed 6th of roughly 3,000 schools in the state on the fifth-grade math test. The study further implied that those scores were reflective of cheating. The current article is a reflection on the leadership response to the implied allegations. The district’s superintendent, Rod Schroder, investigated the allegations and then tenaciously defended his district, teachers, and students.