By requiring limited-English-proficient students and students with disabilities to meet the same targets at the same times as all other students, the NCLB imposes a one-size-fits-all approach that ignores the individual child. Challenges school leaders to take care not to blame the students and still hold themselves accountable for continual…

Applies to public education the principles that begin to explain why some organizations become great and others do not. States that an organization is able to achieve greatness only by pushing in an intelligent and consistent direction for years and even decades. (MLF)

School leaders should use the charter-school movement as an opportunity to involve all community members in designing all schools and changing schooling's managerial structure. The Advocacy Design Center process is a community-building strategy based on democratic values and research-based models. The idea is to create vital, inquiry-based schools…

Notes that in choosing between providing direct services for children or building a school system's continuing capacity to provide these services, infrastructure reinforcement expenditures too frequently lose out. Suggests training is a necessary, value-added component that would enable technology to be integrated into the school organization's…

Summarizes a position paper examining six paradoxes surrounding systemic change, leadership incompetence, school reform failures, and technology's limited strategic and productivity-enhancement roles in schools. Notes a new core of research about human learning is challenging the assumptions on which school systems have operated. A national Center…

Discusses how the absence of equal resources for schools or adequate support for families must not prevent educators from eliminating the gross inequalities brought about by assigning our least-qualified teachers to the neediest students, tolerating shoddy practice, steering students to inferior curricular choices, and generally miseducating the…

Whether renovating or constructing a school building, planners must give serious thought to how a building might accommodate different instructional approaches and avoid traffic or supervision nightmares. Planners must also consider aesthetics, community-school partnerships, and educational technology's role. A sidebar by James Fox and Kay Psencik…

Identifies 29 private firms in the business of conducting superintendent searches on a regional or nationwide basis. Includes addresses, brief descriptions, and fee ranges. (MLF)

Lessons left out of the formal superintendents' education include handling the school board; working with micromanagers; dealing with the once-a-month expert; communicating with parents; and keeping fit. (MLF)

Describes some steps school districts can take to meet student achievement standards of the No Child Left Behind Act. Includes using the "Bully Pulpit," employing standards to reshape instruction, providing a rigorous curriculum aligned with standards, providing extra instruction for students who need it, and assigning the better…

Recent efforts of parents, education experts, and Congress to expand the definition of handicapped children (under the Education for All Handicapped Children Act) to include attention deficit disorder victims failed when the National Association for the Advancement for Colored People intervened on behalf of Black children, already…

In a healthy organizational culture, the mission statement and guiding beliefs set the direction for planning and actions. Mapleton (Colorado) Public School District's approach to school management places decision-making as close to the implementation point as possible. District schools have become more caring and supportive learning communities.…

The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards emerged in 1987 in response to recommendations by the Carnegie Forum's Task Force on Teaching as a Profession in its 1986 report "A Nation Prepared." This article discusses competition problems arising from national voluntary certification for teachers wishing to demonstrate greater…

The strong statistical relationship between socioeconomic background and test performance has been well documented for two decades. Accountability for student background by adjusting test scores may be necessary. This article proposes a valid alternative method that recognizes both absolute performance scores and student background differences.…

The National Policy Board for Educational Administration report ("Improving the Preparation of School Administrators: An Agenda for Reform") reiterates the need for program improvements for educational administrators. Obstacles to any real change occurring in the near future are pointed out. (six references) (SI)