Presents the results of a longitudinal study that identified changes in the organization of British secondary schools from 1969-1979. There were changes in grouping practices, grading frequency, the prefectorial system, sex differentiation, and activities. The results are explained in terms of an action approach derived from Weber. (AM)

Four top corporate executives were invited to help school executives formulate the shape of future school/business partnerships and to name the single most meaningful educational change needed. Most emphasized business's supportive role in shaking up a failing system, turning around the nation's worst schools, and developing a competent labor…

After studying numerous schools involved in restructuring, Fred Newmann and his research team concluded that reform-minded schools must address how learning can have intellectual quality and communities of learners can be built. This interview summarizes insights from five studies recently published by the Center on Organization and Restructuring…

Adoption of a learning-to-learn perspective in secondary agricultural education is affected by school policy, inservice training, and teachers' professional orientation. School management and policy must reflect the perspective that fostering the quality of students' independent learning is the central mission. School organizations should become…

Considers where English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) programs belong and presents responses from several ESL faculty members. Among the topics are ESL in its own department, housed in several departments, outside the departmental structure, within the English department, and within a modern language department. (GLR)

In this article, the author offers his views on downsizing the public schools in the US. To be efficient, American industries are redesigning themselves to stay competitive. Likewise, America's public schools are being prompted to do the same. The author contends that downsizing public schools may only cause adverse impact. Since education is…

Over the past 10 years, New York has more than doubled its spending on elementary and secondary education, in a fervent attempt to produce greater student achievement and prepare our young people for the fast changing world in which they will have to earn a living. Better results have not been produced as the education system has focused on more…

This paper discusses the merits of developing a high school semester time-table, or schedule, as the final planning stage in the educational process. Such a schedule would provide a weekly breakdown list of all academic subjects, grade levels, teachers for each subject and grade, rooms, laboratories and other facilities, and resources, thereby…

This paper evaluates Hatton's critique of Grant and Sleeter's (1985) view of teacher work. Teachers have power, it is argued, and choose how willing they are to respond to students of particular racial and social backgrounds. (MT)

The response by a group of special educators to the Regular Education Initiative of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services examines nine assumptions on which the initiative is based and makes recommendations concerning experimentation, replication, implementation, and necessary changes in school organization (such as heavy…

Defines teaching as practical work carried out in a socially constructed, complex, and institutionalized setting and serving multiple purposes. Examines teaching practice in conjunction with school administrative structure and organizational policies. Discusses the nature and development of practical teaching theories, focusing on…

A review and synthesis of contemporary models of decision-making in organizations is presented. The match between preferred decision styles of faculty or academic managers and the structural and situational demands of the organization are considered. (Author/MLW)

Students learn much that is not publicly set forth in official school philosophy or in course syllabi. This learning, which includes information, beliefs, and ways of behaving, can be attributed to the implicit curricula of schooling. Discussed are the messages imparted by the classroom and school environment. (RM)

Familiar high school problems include unprepared and apathetic students, inadequate teachers' salaries and benefits, and outmoded grade-level systems. Improvement requires new schooling models including clearer goals, advancement linked to skills mastery, promotion of thinking skills, less fragmented school time, elimination of age-grading, less…

Six administrators comment about their experiences as dual principals--situations in which one principal has responsibility for two or even more schools. All agree that the dual principalship imposes restrictions on the principal's role as a leader. (MLF)