While central control can lead to bureaucracy and sclerosis, the local alternative can produce a wasteful duplication of effort. This paper analyzes how different levels of school autonomy affect costs across the United States. Results suggest there may be an optimal, cost-minimizing level of decentralized decision-making authority. Academic…

The bitter debate over the literary and historical canon has overshadowed the progress made in multicultural education during the last two decades. Detractors mistakenly believe that multicultural education is for victimized minorities and women, opposes the Western tradition, and will divide the nation. Teachers must integrate five knowledge…

Inclusive schools have a cohesive sense of community open to differences and responsive to individual needs. This sense of community is disrupted by the practice of pulling out gifted children for special services. Inclusion involves changes in philosophy, curriculum, teaching strategy, and structural organization. Schools should embrace…

The U.S. educational system's strengths are inclusiveness, superior postsecondary education programs, improved content standards and measurements, local flexibility, and socialization and the common school. The system's weaknesses are failure to educate its non-college-bound students, understand shifting family structures, improve teacher training…

Project SHAPE is a two-year intervention and enrichment program for underachieving and educationally disadvantaged ninth and tenth grade students in Toledo, Ohio. Operating through teacher empowerment; curriculum development; structural organization; and student, parent, and community involvement, SHAPE's goals are developing an academically…

To revitalize schools, educators must break away from old habits and learn to think within a paradigm that is more optimistic about human potential. Without a new guiding vision, restructuring will not succeed. Educational restructuring is a fundamental change of assumptions about what schools are, how they are organized, and how they operate. (20…

Examines current micropolitics literature in the context of educational reform leadership. Discusses implications of disassociated research and policymaking for systemic change, particularly when macro directions meet micro realities. Conceptual pluralism in organizational research has enriched and limited our micropolitical understanding. School…

How much do noninstructional minutes in a school day cost? Principals can figure out how many "mission minutes" it takes to hold an assembly or other activity, what it costs, and whether it is worth it. For instance, using clerical labor for registration is cheaper than having students do it. (MLH)

To prepare their students for successful futures, teachers must be willing to learn continuously, expand their own abilities, and assume ever greater leadership roles. Principals must create an environment that supports teacher collaboration, facilitates professional development, and recognizes the concept of teacher leadership. (MLH)

In this report, the Commission on General Education in the 21st Century--a panel of University of California faculty and administrators--issues a call for renewed attention to general education in research universities, highlighting specific reforms for University of California campuses. In addition to analyzing the historical, institutional, and…

One issue in school restructuring has been deciding exactly how to make schools more autonomous and accountable. Charter schools, a recent concept, offer a viable means of integrating various reform ideas in order to create highly autonomous and accountable learning environments. This publication defines charter schools; highlights the appeal of…

This paper presents a retrospective view of how a school district implemented Site-Based Management (SBM). A pilot study examined the historical development of the site-based decision-making process so as to gain a better understanding of how a large urban school district implemented the process and to assess teachers' understanding of their roles…

Management and leadership as a consequence of organizational tasks and structure are discussed in this paper, with a focus on the application of leadership theories from market-oriented organizations to more regulated organizations such as the Swedish school system. The Swedish educational system, according to Berg's (1988) "cross…

Traditionally, the schools' role has been to transform children from players to workers by teaching them to relinquish pleasurable activity in and of itself in favor of obtaining pleasure from achievement from the end results. Advocates for greater democracy, however, believe that education for citizenship can only be achieved through a child's…

Issues pertaining to the administration of technical education within the postsecondary education system of Western Australia are examined, as are new developments in postsecondary education and procedures adopted by the Western Australian Post Secondary Education Commission to study this topic. Excerpts from Commonwealth Government reports on…