Advises educators to stop peering through the rearview mirror of first-wave reform aimed at increasing accountability and raising standards, and confront the second wave's exciting new agenda featuring individual schools as decision-makers, a more collegial, personalized school environment, flexible time use, and an emphasis on higher-order…

To understand schools from insiders' perspectives, this study shadowed 19 high school students and 8 teachers in all of their classes for two weeks. Given schools' problematic features (structural fragmentation, teacher isolation, emphasis on intrinsic rewards, and school-relevant learning) and teachers' weak sense of school ownership, the article…

The collaborative school provides a climate and a structure that encourage teachers to work together with the principal and other administrators toward school improvement and professional growth. (Author)

The principles of a sound education can be incorporated in a middle school or a junior high school. It is important that commitment be made to programs rather than to the psychological ploy of a name. (Author/MLF)

Effective middle-level schools provide students with a supportive structure in the form of relationships between teachers and students. Research has confirmed the effectiveness of team organization, advisory groups, multi-age grouping, and exploratory curricula. (Author/MLF)

Small schools (300 to 400 students) offer a real panacea for America's educational ills. New York City's celebrated Central Park East schools lack separate buildings, but have the climate and culture for developing democratic habits of heart and mind. Smallness can facilitate governance, respect, simplicity, safety, parent involvement,…

New York's Johnson City Central School District adopted the teacher support. Includes seven references. (MLH)

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…

The report most frequently heard in successful schools is that rules are carefully and openly developed, clearly announced, firmly enforced, and consistently applicable to everyone. (Author)

Reliance on the "delegation model" in public education has created a fundamental gap between families and schools. The Accelerated Schools Project has helped two poverty-afflicted, minority-populated elementary schools in the San Francisco Bay Area enlist parents and mobilize community agencies to achieve shared improvement goals.…

Only when the organizational structure and staff are aligned with the school vision can productive and exciting change happen. Change is thwarted when the school vision is uninspiring, developed incorrectly, not used immediately, or misaligned with staff or organization. Values, missions, outcomes, and visions have a short shelf-life; they must…

Summary findings from a meta-analysis of 133 research studies of adults comparing the relative effectiveness of cooperative, competitive, and individualistic efforts show that cooperation among adults promotes achievement, positive interpersonal relationships, social support, and self-esteem. (MLF)

Whatever the plan, the point is to design within the educational structure a process which can respond to today's needs and the probably different needs or different situations of tomorrow. (Author)

The evidence does not support Chubb and Moe's conclusions that current methods of school governance are responsible for poor student achievement. Organization and other variables (such as family background and student ability) combined account for less than 5 percent of student achievement variations. Market principles applied to education could…

Efforts to improve American high schools must center on their most fundamental deficiencies. Out of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development's High School Futures Planning Consortium have evolved experience-based principles (outlined in sidebars) that other school leaders can adapt for improving their schools' organization,…