Describes study which indicates that the attitudes of curriculum supervisors toward possible consequences of curriculum organizations of magnet schools is less favorable than their attitude toward consequences of the comprehensive school. Magnet schools are those designed to accommodate specific student interests (performing arts, engineering).…

The school choice debate evokes compelling arguments by advocates and opponents alike. As the controversy continues, urban school districts are losing significant resources to charter schools. Districts seeking to compete in the race to reclaim dollars lost to the school choice battle should emulate the factors that have propelled parents to seek…

Data indicates a greater positive attitude toward school held by children in an open program compared to children in a traditional program, thus supporting the idea that an open environment may lead to more positive attitudes toward school. This research is drawn from an extensive evaluation of open education being conducted under the leadership…

This report presents the results of a 1999 survey of 336 elementary schools in Ohio. It examines progressive and traditional practices in public, Catholic, and independent schools and offers an overview of the different kinds of schools. Rather than asking principals to characterize their schools as progressive or traditional, principals were…

The Attitude Toward Education Scale (ATES) is a self-report instrument designed to measure two global educational philosophical orientations--progressivism and traditionalism. The scale was administered to 250 teachers; the responses were subjected to principal component analyses. The results support Kerlinger and Kaya's component conceptual…

This working paper discusses safety in urban charter schools relative to other urban public schools, using several indicators from the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). SASS is the nation's most extensive sample survey of elementary and secondary schools and the teachers and administrators who staff them. The indicators measure the frequency of…

This study was designed to determine if (a) a developed interview procedure could be used to encourage students in both open and traditional schools to effectively state their educational goals and standards of performance in behavioral terms and (b) to determine if the goal statements obtained differed between the two school populations. Three…

An investigation was conducted to compare the self-concept of 103 fifth-grade children from schools that practice a traditional educational philosophy to the self-concept of 94 fifth-grade children from schools that practice an open educational philosophy. All subjects were administered the Piers-Harris Self-Concept Scale for Children. Both…

The relationships among cooperation-competition, perceptions of locus of control in social situations, and locus of control in intellectual-academic situations were compared among fourth- and fifth-graders in traditional and open classrooms. Open education children were more cooperative, and traditional students displayed higher internality for…

Four creativity tests were administered to 264 Sudanese students (ages 15-20) to investigate the differing effects upon creativity of traditional and modern education. Those receiving a modern education performed better on two tests measuring cognitive ability, while the traditionally educated group performed better on an Egyptian test measuring…

Positioned in relationship to reform literature calling for small schools "by design" and interpreting data from a case study of a high performing but low-SES district in a Midwestern state, this paper provides a basis for making sense of the apparent divergence in policies governing schooling structures in rural and urban places. Its…

The purpose of this study was to discover if there were differences in student attitude and achievement toward and in the subject matter between students taught in an open space and in a closed space. Two classes in U.S. history taught in 11th grade were compared. The same instructor taught both classes using identical methods, procedures, and…

Academic anxiety, person/group relations, and subject satisfaction were investigated in three secondary schools in various stages of curriculum reform: a traditional school, a school in which a short-course elective program was being implemented, and a school in which such a program was fully implemented. Attitude measures were completed by 482…

This paper provides an example of how elementary school curriculum leaders can be mindful of student intelligences and can utilize the strengths of their student populations. It presents the findings from a national study that examined how 17 schools using a curriculum based on Multiple Intelligences Theory improved the self-concept and positive…

The Stephens-Delys Reinforcement Contingency Interview was administered to 78 subjects, 6.5 years to 7.5 years, who were enrolled in "traditional" or "open" educational programs. Scores are categorized by sex, race, economic level, and educational program, and treated by analysis of variance. (Author/PN)