This article investigates teaching as collective work. The goals, functions and forms of teachers' collective work and changes in the professional representations or repertoire of actions through collective activity are identified. A synthetic framework is outlined and shown to be useful in addressing the data, by revealing the importance of…

Furman Brown has spent over a decade figuring out how to design a better school. As a first-year teacher in South Central Los Angeles in the early 1990s, he got a taste of what was wrong with the traditional public school model: It was not designed to serve students "or" teachers well. Convinced there was a better way to organize and…

Many Catholic high schools have transitioned to a president-principal administrative structure. This article discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the model, revealing pertinent issues that must be addressed while operationalizing the model. Recent research supports some aspects of the model, but it is no panacea. Clear job descriptions, role…

In presenting this case study of an innovative school building in Scotland, the author describes its unique design features, conveys the viewpoints of the users, client and design team, and reveals the lessons learned. Dalry Primary, North Ayrshire Introduction Dalry Primary School in North Ayshire is the latest case study featured on the Scottish…

Contemporary secondary schools in Canada and the United States are complex institutions whose organizational structures, program delivery mechanisms, and institutional community members combine to produce distinctive mini-societies within their walls. Replete with complex arrays of rituals, ceremonies, as well as traditions and founded on a…

With the implementation of site-based decision-making occurring in schools, the extent to which teachers perceive their involvement in decisions on planning, budgeting, curriculum, staffing patterns, staff development, and campus-level organization and the extent to which teachers' views of their involvement in these activities are congruent with…

Schools are implementing new and effective strategies in an effort to graduate 90 percent of students and to ensure that graduates are prepared to succeed in college, advanced training and work. This newsletter describes how schools have redesigned their schedules, organizational structures and cultures in an effort to graduate 90 percent of…

This work, part of the Spanish government's National I + D Plan 2004/07, entitled "Observatics: the implementation of free software in ICT centres in Andalusia: an analysis of its effect on the teaching-learning process", aims to describe the most recent impact of online communication technologies on education in Andalusia (Spain),…

The effective, sustained implementation of literacy across the curriculum in secondary schools is still a relatively rare phenomenon. This is because such an approach to literacy requires secondary schools to undergo extensive and complex processes of school change, involving altering teachers' thinking, attitudes and behaviour in relation to…

This non-experimental, correlational study looked at the relationship between bureaucratic structures in middle and high schools in bringing about change in individual teacher classroom instructional practices through the centralized directive of membership in a professional learning community. Using a continuum of bureaucratic structure, from…

This article sheds new light on the so-called "natural tension" between bureaucracy and professionalism in schools. As it is quite common in the educational field to appoint teachers, it is debatable whether the assumed tension really exists. It seems more reasonable to find hierarchical control "within" the professional group.…

Researchers have identified ninth grade as one of the most critical periods of time for intervention to prevent the loss of motivation, failing grades, and dropping out of school. This Information Capsule is concerned with the efficacy of ninth-grade centers or academies which isolate ninth-grade students into separate school buildings or in wings…

Danish upper-secondary school is currently undergoing remarkable changes. Comprehensive reforms and restructuring have transformed teacher roles and school organization. However, not all upper-secondary teachers welcome reform: on the one hand, they have to adopt norms, standards and values determined by colleagues, if they want to "fit…

High school improvement initiatives often focus on specific intervention strategies, programs, or priority topics (e.g., dropout intervention). However, research shows that systemic and sustainable improvement can only be achieved when initiatives are implemented with consideration for the broader education contexts in which they operate. The…

Seemingly endless tinkering and adjustment of the structure of education in the United States over the past century have led to the adoption of different school forms (grouping particular grades into separate schools) at different times. These different school forms necessitate transitions between schools (e.g., from a middle school to a high…