Describes IMPACT II, an experimental teacher-to-teacher network that encourages teacher-initiated innovations by offering "developer" and "replicator" grants. Reports the results of a survey evaluation of the project and concludes that innovation works best from the bottom up. (Author/WD)

Originally designed to meet the needs of students at international schools forced to pursue their education across national frontiers, the International Baccalaureate provides an integrated course of study and set of examinations that follow the classical liberal approach to education, emphasizing a balance of scientific studies and the…

An innovation-focused Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) study of 13 nations participating in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) found universal unhappiness with the state of mathematics and science education. There was no link among successful test scores, improvement goals, or satisfaction of…

Between the infancy and the adulthood of online communications stand years of generational haggling between educators raised on the book and those hooked on the byte. The telecommunications infrastructure (phone lines, electronic bulletin boards, and international networks) can already help teachers bring within reach a world of people and…

School reformers have not been too radical, but have been unable to sustain their reforming energy and innovative thinking. Reformers are not "tinkering toward Utopia," but are relapsing into habit, meandering back into mediocrity. A remarkably coherent tradition of rethinking schooling is yielding to the forces of inertia,…

Challenges the assumption that bureaucracy is bad for charter schools. Examines perceived autonomy, governance structures, leadership, and perceived culture of community-charter schools in Ohio. (Contains 15 references.) (PKP)

The rapid growth of charter schools has encouraged innovation and led to new models of schooling. Foremost among these are cyber charter schools where students learn from computer-based lessons beyond the walls of the traditional schoolhouse setting. The authors present the case of cyber charter schools in Pennsylvania. They describe how cyber…

Lesson study, the dominant form of professional development for teachers in Japan, has spread rapidly in the U.S. since 1999. In this article, the authors discuss the growth and success of lesson study at Highlands Elementary School in California's San Mateo-Foster City School District and identify conditions needed for scale-up. They also discuss…

Presents nine propositions dealing with communication and implementation of innovations. For example, innovation diffusion depends on face-to-face personal contact, the teacher has very limited access to new ideas and innovations, and what is rational for the teacher may not be rational for the administrator or reformer. (Author/IRT)

Schools will adopt the changes dictated by new services to be rendered, an improved psychology of learning, changing economics and politics, advancing technology, and the realization that schools are in the public domain and that their services and places are held in common to help all people increase the common wealth. (Author/DW)

In the future, American higher education will become more flexible, open, and egalitarian while it moves toward the European pattern of increased student responsibility. (Author/DW)

This model is an attempt to integrate a number of developments into a new form of secondary education with a distinctive purpose, process, and context that will have a powerful and beneficial influence on the maturation of adolescents and their transition to adulthood. (Author)

Despite its phenomenal success at disseminating information on endorsed innovative programs, the National Diffusion Network's interstate activities will be severely limited unless a new source of funding is found. (Author/IRT)

In attempting to adopt characteristics of free schools, the public schools adopted teaching methods. This attempt failed to caputre the essence of free schools because what was innovative about them was political--changes in administration and organization--rather than pedagogical. (Author/IRT)

Although the need for educational improvement in United States schools has recently gained increasing attention, current proposals for bringing about reform do not effectively address the problem of teacher and school isolation and thus fail to offer sufficiently systematic plans for implementation. (JBM)