This review is a comprehensive assessment of the effectiveness and efficiency of education in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) government high schools, addressing basic questions and making recommendations concerning goals, school structure, provision of resources, curriculum, and educational outcomes. It is divided into 13 chapters covering…

There are many components to, and aspects of, Soviet education; but how does the organizational structure of the Soviet educational system favor efficiency and national power? How does the Soviet structure differ from the typical traditional U. S. model? The essay proceeds to comment on the alleged disparity between planning and implementation of…

This book studies the role of the global education movement and its impact on educational change and reform. The volume discusses the importance of global education and considers the following topics: the influence of research on practice; global education as a social movement; meaning and activity; competing demands and the use of time in…

This handbook was designed to help school administrators, teachers, and community members make a successful transition from a junior high school to a middle school. The focus is on the process rather than content. Chapter 1 provides an example of how one junior high school faculty and administration made the shift to a middle school. Chapter 2…

Subject departments form the primary organizational unit of the high school. The chapters in this book illuminate the ways in which departments shape the views and practice of individual teachers, serve as a locus of professional community, and express institutional and social values. The book examines the implications of subject affiliation and…

This book serves as a resource guide to help people engage in a healthy, informed discussion of restructuring possibilities. Its focus is on creating readiness for school restructuring, which differs from both renewal and reform. Each chapter is similar in structure and designed to stand on its own. Each is short enough to be quickly read and then…

This book presents a summary of school-choice issues, and is organized around a 1992 seminar entitled "Choice: What Role in American Education?" Each part presents a set of conference papers, followed by discussants' remarks and excerpts from audience discussion. The introduction summarizes the papers' positions and conclusions. Participants…

The school district decentralization process is described in this guidebook, which focuses on the administrator's role in implementation. Three chapters are organized around the three phases of decentralization--exploration, trial, and commitment. Each phase is examined in terms of the real-life experiences of administrators and other…

Two significant themes are considered as part of a conceptual whole in this book: curriculum development and inservice education for teachers. Curriculum development is considered in many dimensions--the logic of subject matter, teacher opinion, student need, parent opinion, political climate, fiscal policy, psychological climate, ethnic values,…

The principal aim of this book is to describe patterns of school organization in urban schools and to examine their consequences for teacher performance. Much current rhetoric about school reform is based on assumptions for which evidence is scanty. This study examines relevant data in an effort to verify or refute some of these assumptions. Its…

Do academic departments promote scholarship, protect higher learning from stagnation and interference, and provide a sound basis for hiring and advancing faculty? Or do they stifle teaching and research, foster parochialism, and limit the development of professors and students? There exist operating alternatives to conventional departments. Those…

This book focuses on the process of implementing an alternative school within a public urban system. To identify and illustrate the problems inherent in organizing and operating an alternative school the West Philadelphia Community Free School was taken as a case study. Observations and analysis are here offered on two different levels: (1)…

The focus of this report is on the functions of the curriculum coordinator in the Chelmsford Public Schools. The role of coordinator came into being as a response to a particular set of needs. An analysis of the changing nature of those needs provided a basis for deciding whether the coordinator role should be continued in its present form;…

This book attempts to show how schools can go about humanizing their own processes and procedures. It takes the view that schools are complex social systems and that systematic changes--not merely changes in individual attitudes--are required to realize humanization. From this "systems" point of view, the most powerful tool for developing…

This book is addressed to high school principals, teachers, curriculum specialists, counselors, and other educators interested in creating sound change at the building level. The theme of constructivism and constructivist thought pervades the text. Part 1 introduces the reader to constructivism and offers comparisons of a high school based on…