Parental choice is seen as a promising approach to school improvement. This report supports choice by suggesting answers to the following questions that reformers might ask: (1) is school performance poor enough to justify wholesale change? (2) what have schools done about troubling trends in student performance? (3) what do other researchers say…

Research of 25 Michigan elementary and secondary public schools is used to test a model relating organizations' problem-solving adequacy to their available inputs or resources and to the appropriateness of their structures. Problems that all organizations must solve, to avoid disorganization or entropy, include (1) getting inputs and producing…

The object of the investigations reported here is the perceptions students and teachers have of "actual" classrooms and of their "ideal" classrooms. The data come from 10 junior--level classrooms in each of five high schools. The 10 classrooms were selected as follows: two each in English, mathematics, and social Studies; with the remaining four…

The concern of this book is with the underlying forces responsible for the very existence of schools and for what schools accomplish. The author offers a "theory of spontaneous schooling," in which mechanisms for academic growth are found when adults and children are in contact in almost any kind of administrative arrangement. Schooling is seen as…

The 111th Street School is successfully educating black students K-6 in inner-city Los Angeles. The key to the program's success is a form of organization designed to functionally support an ungraded system of learning centers devoted to attainment of specific educational objectives. Two Directories, this for the classroom teacher and a separate…

This study summarizes the theory and the available evidence on the effects of size on the responsiveness and efficiency of local government. For each of four important sections of the California Code bearing on the structure and authority of cities and school districts, the study summarizes (1) the primary provisions of the present Code, (2) some…

Reviews the following historical phases of the recent home school movement: (1) parents' contentions about public schools; (2) home school parents' confrontations with schools and the courts; (3) cooperation between public schools and home schools; and (4) consolidation of home schools. Introduces the other articles in this issue. (BJV)

Presents findings from this condensation of major studies of the differences among U.S., Chinese, and Japanese education. Explanations for the superior performance of Chinese and Japanese students are explored in the areas of home and parents, effort and ability, organization of schooling, and teachers and teaching. (SLD)

Reports on a study of the impact of attending restructured schools on the achievement and engagement of 8,845 eighth graders from public, Catholic, and independent schools. Finds modest, but consistently positive, effects on both achievement and engagement. Also finds that students attending smaller schools demonstrated more academic achievement.…

In July 1969, an Israeli parliament decision instigated an educational reform focused on curriculum development, teacher education, new buildings, new equipment, and a change from 8 to 6 years in elementary school and from 4 to 6 years in secondary school. Dropouts, useless curricula, job market demands for better education, and integration and…

The paper gives Dutch results and possible implications of three recently completed international evaluation studies. School subjects were mathematics and science at the grade levels 8 and 9 in more than 500 schools. Effect and efficiency of teaching and textbooks in different school types, opportunity to learn, and students' classroom…

THIS REPORT BY AN INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH ORGANIZATION SUMMARIZES AN ASSESSMENT OF MATHEMATICAL ACHIEVEMENT IN TWELVE COUNTRIES. THE STUDY WAS DESIGNED TO TEST HYPOTHESES WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF COMPARATIVE EDUCATION. MANY OF THE PROBLEMS AND LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY ARE EXPLAINED, AND INTERPRETATIONS AND GENERALIZATIONS ARE TEMPERED WITH CAUTION.…

The role of education is strongly determined by the perspective set by the political and social fabric of a given culture. Political and social upheaval, experimentation, and change accelerated at a tremendous pace during the 1960s and early 1970s. Consequently, great changes occurred in the structure of many school systems throughout the nation.…

This proposal seeks to deal with the problems of underachievement in reading and arithmetic by students in the District of Columbia school system. Some prevalent theories which seek to explain underachievement are presented, as well as basic assumptions of the proposed educational design. The design as presented includes proposals for the…

Discusses recent and projected trends in (1) enrollments in elementary and secondary schools and among special student populations, (2) the numbers and configurations of elementary and secondary schools, (3) teacher employment and salary levels, (4) state and federal aid, and (5) student performance on national mathematics and science tests. (PGD)