We studied a case of a school in a high need setting that undertook multiple simultaneous initiatives during a major school reorganization. We focused on the simultaneous implementations of two comprehensive initiatives, one related to ambitious mathematics teaching and one related to the Understanding by Design curriculum writing process. We…

In the last 30 years, the U.S. education reform movement has focused primarily on increasing school choice, accountability linked to standards, and leadership capacity in our schools. In particular, charter schools have tried to incorporate all three elements in their attempt to provide families with better options for their children. But many…

Although rearranging school organizational features is a popular school reform, little research exists to inform policymakers about how grade spans affect achievement. This article examines how grade spans and the school transitions that students make between fourth and eighth grade shape student performance in eighth grade. The authors estimate…

Only a quarter of the class of 2008 graduated from Alain Locke Senior High School in Los Angeles after four years. This was unsurprising since nearly 60 percent of the class had left Locke by the end of their sophomore year. A majority of Locke teachers--frustrated with the school's mediocrity--petitioned to allow charter management organization…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine how the technology beliefs of New York State Career and Technical Education Board of Cooperative Education Services administrators influenced their leadership behaviors. The participants were from a purposive selection from five suburban and rural Boards of Cooperative Education Services in…

Critical Small Schools: Beyond Privatization in New York City Urban Educational Reform features the most current empirical research about the successes and challenges of the small schools movement and the implications of such for urban public educational policy. Situated in a climate of hierarchical reform, many of the principles of the original…

This article deals with school districts' K-8 configurations. Cincinnati, Cleveland, Milwaukee, New York, and Philadelphia are among the districts making the change, driven by a small body of research and a rising pile of anecdotes suggesting that K-8 configurations help academic performance, decrease discipline problems, enhance parent…

Reports how the prolonged 1978 Levittown (New York) teachers strike initially depleted resources and created problems but proved to be the impetus for development of an effective school system. Reviews sources of conflict that led to the strike, reactions of community and teachers, and reforms focused on teacher empowerment. (FMW)

This publication reviews a statewide change effort in New York conceived of as a comprehensive, systematic process of change involving the participation of a total community in the examination and redefinition of its educational needs and goals. As a change strategy, Redesign attempts to deal with the entire system of education and is concerned…

The latest available statistics for 1958-59 indicate there were 8,084 small schools and that they had enrolled in them 1,650,000 pupils. It is a matter of conjecture how much these figures will be reduced in the next 10 years, but there is considerable doubt that the reduction will be a truly significant one. In any event the current figures are…