A public, Catholic, and charter school in Boston all work together to share their strengths and learn from each other in an effort to deliver the best education for all of their students. The arrangement is called the School Performance Partnership, and it is a grantee of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The "gold standard" of youth outcomes is when they are achieving employment and pursuing a clear career path. The activities transition and employment initiatives, and the partnerships that support them, are most appropriately judged against this standard. This Guide presents approaches and considerations for the development and…

An organisational change-process in a UK local authority (LA) over two years is examined using transcribed excerpts from three meetings. The change-process is analysed using a Foucauldian analytical tool--Iterative Learning Conversations (ILCS). An Educational Psychology Service was changed from being primarily an education-focussed…

Policymakers and researchers have focused on improving the quality of our nation's 3 million teachers to raise the achievement of students in key academic areas, such as reading and mathematics. Given the importance of teacher quality to student achievement and the key role federal and state governments play in supporting teacher quality, GAO's…

Conducting collaborative fieldwork between American researchers and foreign scholars in developing countries is a difficult prospect for political scientists. Yet, we can use our knowledge and position at an American university to contribute to the academic community in our areas of study and establish lasting personal and institutional ties with…

As programs serving young children and their families increasingly work together to provide services, written agreements or contracts become more important in clarifying the roles of each partner in the collaboration. This document provides guidance in developing written agreements between Head Start programs and other programs or agencies. The…

This study took an in-depth look at the collaborative work of teachers engaged in curriculum restructuring, and explored how individual teachers' perceptions inform and are informed by such collaboration. The objective of the study was to explore how teachers' individual knowledge, experiences, and curriculum orientations affected their…

Effective school restructuring requires teacher motivation and action to transform knowledge about change into reality. This paper defines and describes what is meant by "professional learning community"; describes what happens when a school staff studies, works, plans, and takes action collectively on behalf of increased learning for…

This chapter, taken from a guide to designing, implementing, and evaluating instruction and services for students with disabilities, addresses the issue of teacher collaboration. It provides information about the nature of teacher collaboration, its role in relation to special education service delivery as well as other school trends, its…

Discusses the process of educational change at a small rural elementary school in Gosport, Indiana. A design team made up of school staff and community representatives is explained, and design team activities and presentations are described. The importance of effective communication is emphasized, and suggestions for community involvement are…

This paper presents educational collaboration as a structured process and interactive relationship among individuals that focuses on multiple outcomes in a school's organizational structures. The paper describes characteristics of a collaborative school and the professional behaviors that support collaboration; outlines strategies that facilitate…

This paper offers leaders in business and education techniques and strategies for encouraging, initiating, and managing business-school partnerships for educational improvement. Such partnerships can help schools impart to their graduates the "skills, judgment, and initiative" needed to keep America's economy strong. Following the foreword and…

A study analyzed the experience of eight schools that had begun working to integrate their academic and vocational education programs several years before passage of the 1990 Perkins Act amendments. The following common themes were identified as collectively defining integration as a distinct reform effort: (1) richer, better sequenced curricula…

The report of a seminar involving 13 Asian nations held to develop coordinated population education programs is presented. Following an introduction describing background, objectives, and participation, chapter 1 summarizes the reports on national population education presented by Afghanistan, Bangladesh, the People's Republic of China, India,…

This implementation guide is designed to provide practical, useful help to vocational and academic teachers, administrators, and support personnel in integrated academic and vocational instruction. The introduction defines integration, discusses assessment of the status of current programs and the assumptions underlying integration, and presents…