This paper focuses on engaging and enabling educators to play new roles and take new leadership in the paradigm shift between traditional and competency-based education: a system of learning designed to ensure that all learners are prepared with the knowledge, skills and dispositions to be successful lifelong learners. The paper re-envisions…

Part of the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education (SCOPE) research series titled "Teachers' Time: Collaborating for Learning, Teaching, and Leading," this case study looks at Hillsdale High School, a large, comprehensive high school located in San Mateo, California, a high-tech enclave of Silicon Valley nestled 23 miles…

Most of us have had at least one amazing teacher who has inspired, influenced, or encouraged us to do better, aim higher, or just be more confident. However, most of us have also had at least one teacher who has not met our expectations. In "Teachers Matter", education researcher Marcus A. Winters, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute,…

It is argued in this address that public education, with its goal of widely distributed excellence, underlies basic American values. The classroom teacher is perceived as the central focus of the entire educational process, and ways of providing meaningful support to teachers are briefly suggested. New realities that the public and teachers must…

Both the Carnegie Report and the Paideia Report argue that all students should study the same curriculum and that significant qualitative change in educational programs is needed. Ernest Boyer's book, "High School," provides evidence of the diversity of the public schools, challenges stereotypes, and suggests that many needed changes can be…

Two major trends have affected the responsibility of the public schools in providing health education and services over the past 2 decades. First, the structure of the family and the demographics of the school-aged population have changed dramatically, placing greater burdens for child welfare on school systems. Second, the leading causes of…

This book is designed to help policymakers, educators, and researchers develop a deeper understanding of the issues of school restructuring and to give greater conceptual clarity to the terms of the current debate. The chapters of the book contain forum papers that are organized into two main parts. Following chapter 1, "Introduction: On Changing…

A study was conducted to obtain an overall picture of discipline problems in Scottish secondary schools. In particular, the study sought to clarify what teachers counted as a discipline problem, how Scottish views related to views in England and Wales, the headteacher's role, and how discipline related to other managerial tasks. A questionnaire…

This proposal is for a pilot project that applies the best features of private schools to the racially diverse, urban, public elementary schools of Minneapolis (Minnesota). The following features are outlined: (1) classrooms will have a 14:1 student-teacher ratio; (2) all supplemental and compensatory programs will be eliminated; (3) 198 students…

This Wisconsin study responded to a state law (1989 Wisconsin Act 82) requiring evaluation of the fiscal and programmatic impact of limiting the involvement of school district employees, other than health care professionals, in providing specialized physical health care services to pupils. Responses of 495 (out of 1,000) schools surveyed found the…

Recommendations arising from the Illinois Project for School Reform are outlined in this document. First, the problem of declining academic standards is addressed and it is recommended that new curricula and rigorous standards be adopted. Local districts are urged to adopt a core curriculum, a competencies curriculum, or an integrated themes…

Drawing on interviews with 180 staff members from 45 public high schools in 15 states, this document examines the advantages and disadvantages of teacher participation in shared decision making. The settings of six high schools that had structured mechanisms for teacher participation in school decisions are described, and problems that emerged…