This study aims to gain a better understanding of the Finnish national curriculum reform by examining how the educational practitioners, at the district level, orchestrate the shared sense-making concerning the reform work in their school districts. Qualitative focus group data was collected from 12 groups, throughout Finland, that were…

This paper evaluates the perceived impact of the National Award (NA) for Special Educational Needs (SEN) Coordination in English mainstream schools. The Award was introduced in 2009 and has been mandatory for all new Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCos) since its inception. The framework used for the evaluation is based on the learning…

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…

Higher education planning in Mexico is discussed, with attention to: conceptual characteristics of Mexico's higher education planning system; relationships among the national, regional, state, and institutional planning levels; and design and operation of the Comprehensive Program for the Development of Higher Education. Responsibilities of…

The primary purpose of the project was to explore the possibilities of bringing into the Adult Basic Education (ABE) system the systematic and orderly introduction of volunteer use, through a planning mechanism called a Task Force. A secondary purpose was to investigate change strategies applicable to the existing ABE network. The activities of…

A survey of community educators substantiates the assumption that the neighborhood schools will not lose local control if there are cooperative agreements with community colleges, and that community schools and community colleges should jointly concern themselves with local problems, such as community development, course needs, and recreation. (TA)

Second in a series on improving teacher education, the paper briefly explains and justifies a generalist-specialist model of teacher education and applies the framework to steps necessary to ensure adequate competence on the part of current teachers. (SB)

The purpose of this paper is to define HETFIRE (the title of a report by the Higher Education Task Force on Improvement and Reform in American Education), and to identify and discuss the key elements contained in HETFIRE. The task force was established in 1972 to determine and conceptualize the best thinking of the higher education teacher…

Experiences with and studies of a formal network of 18 elementary schools--the League of Cooperating Schools (LCS)--in Southern California are described and analyzed in a narrative account, with observations, of the network's creation and maturation. This set of formal agreements between the school districts and the Research Division of the…

This monograph examines some suggested guidelines as they relate to what happens when agents of change, from within and without the schools, collaborate with common goals in mind. The experiences from developing a cooperative model for a university and a school district are summarized in the form of guidelines which can be helpful to others who…

This study investigated two different responses to the need to develop effective means to mobilize and improve the delivery of educational resources. The top-down approach is an effort to replace the centralized State department of education with a decentralized network of Regional Centers (RCs). The bottom-up approach is a grass roots movement by…

The fundamental structure of American society is made up of the family unit, the home, and the neighborhood community. If we are going to make any dramatic improvements in learning, we must regain a commitment to values in the home that will nurture learning and bring stability into the life of children. To build a more viable home-school…

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…

This report describes the process of changing one British special school for children with physical disabilities to an inclusion service providing support services to children attending local mainstream schools. The process involved such steps as developing a mission statement, major changes in the personnel structure, involvement of parents, and…

The Configurational Theory of Innovation Diffusion, Planned Change, and Development, or the CLER model, can be an effective tool for planning change events such as those involved in developing or improving a vocational education program. The C in the CLER model stands for configurations and configurational relationships among and between the…