After a 1986 study of American secondary schools, a British headmistress compares the schools she studied with their equivalents in the British education system. She points out that American principals are leaders and innovators. (MD)

To help avoid past mistakes in attempts at curriculum and instructional improvement, this article offers five guidelines for secondary school curriculum change and innovation. (DCS)

Achieving flexibility without losing student accountability is a challenge that faces every school. With a fluid block schedule, as described here, accountability is maintained without inhibiting flexibility. An additional advantage is that three levels of schedule decision making take some of the pressure off the principal. (Editor)

Schools that are frontline innovators have difficulty sustaining their leadership thrust, the writer contends, primarily because of difficulty in the broad areas of training, leadership, professionalism, and community. (Editor)

Article is a list of cautions based on the experience of large school districts, as leaders in initiating educational options. (Editor)

A step-by-step process for changing curriculum, based on research by both the Ford and Danforth Foundations, stresses that administrators and teachers must work together to bring about meaningful change. (Author/MLF)

Describes a cross-disciplinary peer teaching program to improve high school teachers' writing skills. The 16-week program succeeded because of four main ingredients: administrative support, a long-term commitment to improving student writing, an onsite, inservice design, and incentives for teacher involvement. (MLH)

Examples of innovative applications of telecommunications are cited, and the importance of school administrators' acquiring computer literacy emphasized. What educational leaders should know about telecommunications and the computer age is outlined. (MJL)

Schools can achieve humanistic goals, assert these writers, by providing students more options and therby meeting their diverse needs. Showing how widespread the mini-concept is, they report in this article a three-state survey that indicates how principals feel about their programs. (Editor)

The Flexible Campus Program, the author believes, has given Boston's schools system-wide innovation by offering real curriculum alternatives and meaningful, supervised, career and future-oriented'' learning opportunities that draw on community resources. (Editor)

Pressure today is exerted upon school officials for alternatives. The author presents several programs his school system has initiated, with frank appraisal of their success or failure. (Editor)

Virginia's high schools are restructuring the state school system. Using the 4 x 4 schedule, four high schools are offering all students up to a year of postsecondary study beyond the full high school program. Postsecondary scholarships will make this world-class education available to all well-disciplined students who attend regularly and learn…

Tandem teaching employs the best qualities of seven innovative classroom approaches (team teaching, core curriculum, flexible scheduling, elective classes, individualized instruction, peer tutoring, and computer-assisted instruction) to restructure the curriculum, relieve boredom, and maximize class time. Success depends on careful planning and…

Describes the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, a free, residential two-year program affiliated with the University of North Carolina. The school accommodates 400 students and features an outstanding faculty, impressive facilities, a selective admission policy, rigorous graduation requirements, and a mentor program. (MLH)

The current educational format emphasizes learning for grades, for future reward, or to avoid punishment. To promote learning for its own sake and a better understanding of society, secondary schools need to become dynamic learning and living centers where all students, teachers, and administrators are engaged cooperatively in integrated, active…