Kappan's editor-in-chief talks with renowned scholar Susan Moore Johnson about her extensive research into the professional lives of public school teachers. For decades, studies have shown that teaching tends to be isolating work, with few opportunities for teachers to collaborate with and learn from each other or to play meaningful roles in…

Recent state and federal policies generally focus on the individual teacher rather than the school organization. These reforms seem to assume that a teacher can do it all, that an individual who succeeds in one school can succeed in any school and, conversely, that a teacher who fails in one classroom will fail in all others. However, there is no…

Case studies of two high schools that have been turned around from failing to successful show different ways in which failing high schools can be made to succeed. Both high schools concentrated on first helping incoming freshman, and both reforms were driven by data. They differed in staffing and the focus of their first year of reform.

After providing technical assistance to the federal Smaller Learning Community Program grantees, the authors developed five lessons for successful programs: 1) A strong vision of improved instruction needs to drive high school reorganization; 2) A strong vision of improved instruction focuses on strengthening the instructional core; 3)…

By concentrating on the formal school organization, researchers can miss the informal relationships that are fundamental to leadership. Distributed Leadership Studies (DLS) provides a framework for examining school leadership and management that considers the interactions of leaders, followers, and aspects of the context. The framework involves…

Results of a study involving 658 teachers in 27 school systems near the greater Cleveland area. (LR)

Reorganization of a school and training of teachers have resulted in a program that has been effective in developing constructive, orderly, and acceptable behavior in students. (Author/IRT)

A speculative story that outlines the organization and curriculum of an ideal high school in the future. (IRT)

Presents a reader quiz on attitudes about school administration. Analyzes likely responses to the quiz and concludes that the assumption that schools are rational, bureaucratic organizations leads to rigidity and confusion because it does not accurately describe schools as they exist. Argues for pluralism in organizational views. (WD)

Schools are managed with the wrong organizational model in mind. They are unique and cannot be governed by conventional management theory. This article describes schools as loosely coupled systems and describes what school administrators should be doing to be effective in such a situation. (Author/WD)

Many practitioners and policy makers view personalized school environments as a means to promote student commitment to school and engagement in learning. Personalization also rewards teachers and encourages their commitment and accountability. A personalized environment is the product of deliberate, strategic choices about organizational…

Educational restructuring demands come from all quarters except school administrators resistant to change. Restructuring requires scrapping the screening type of school and sweeping out the frozen, ritualized, instructional methods that produce poor results. Brain-based education calls for numerous changes, including working from theory and…

Juxtaposes two concepts--the deep structure of schooling (based on controlling students) and schools' distinct personalities--to examine problems involving change and resistance to change in American education. Schools' custodial role influences restrictive classroom design and discipline policies. Genuine school improvement must happen at a deep…

Means by which the high school can provide for its own self-renewal. (Author)