With U.S. classrooms increasingly characterized by linguistic diversity, policies mandating teacher training around English learning have proliferated. Recent federal oversight prompted Massachusetts to implement an initiative to endorse its 70,000+ teachers in Sheltered English Immersion (SEI). While policy research has productively emphasized…

The Better Math Teaching Network (BMTN) is looking to transform high school math instruction in New England and beyond. Through this network, researchers and practitioners are working together to make high school Algebra I classes more student centered. This report outlines findings from the first year of this developmental evaluation of the…

Over the past 20 years, federal and state reforms have drawn on heavy-handed attempts to close the achievement gap through top-down management of teachers. Such approaches have often included high-stakes accountability systems that mandate what to teach and how to teach it and that evaluate teachers on the basis of annual standardized test scores.…

This publication outlines the fundamental principles and process of Strategic School Design. Through more than a decade of research and practice in the area of school resource use, we have found that high-performing schools are responding to the changing context in education by using people, time, technology, and money in ways that look…

The purpose of this article is to provide evidence of how an integrated high school health, physical education, and wellness program can be implemented. In addition to describing the process used to develop and maintain this wellness curriculum, the article describes the content of the curriculum and how the teachers were able to capture and hold…

Will the digital-learning movement repeat the mistakes of the charter-school movement? How much more successful might today's charter universe look if yesterday's proponents had focused on the policies and practices needed to ensure its quality, freedom, and resources over the long term? What mistakes might have been avoided? Damaging scandals…

Describes how two secondary schools implemented the six basic elements of personalized instruction: The Thomas Haney Secondary Centre in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, and the Francis W. Parker Charter Essential School in Devens, Massachusetts. (Contains 14 references.) (PKP)

This study examines tracking--the practice of grouping students into separate classes or courses based on their prior academic achievement--at the middle-school level, and the percentage of high-achieving students in tracked and untracked schools. It focuses on Massachusetts, a leader in "reforming" tracking, and the changes that have…

Uses the example of the takeover of the Chelsea (Massachusetts) public schools by Boston University to illustrate the problems of educational reform without the involvement of classroom teachers. Argues that no collaboration can be successful without the involvement of parents and teachers. (FMW)

This paper describes the role of Center for Collaborative Education (CCE) in supporting a unique urban public school network, the Boston Pilot Schools Network. By informing the educational community of its strategies, activities, and challenges, CCE hopes to contribute to the understanding of how change promoted from outside the school can affect…

While none of the six school/college collaborations described in this report represents a fully developed professional development school (PDS), each focuses on components which might be included in a PDS. The six collaborative ventures in teacher education were carried out in Massachusetts during the 1987-88 academic year. Each program sought to…

State and federal mandates for education reform call for increased accountability and the inclusion of students with disabilities in all accountability efforts. In the rush to implement high-stakes education reforms, particularly those involving tests or assessments, the particular needs of students with severe cognitive disabilities are only now…

In school reform studies little attention has been paid to context, i.e., the structures, standards, norms, and practices that enable and encourage teachers to do their best work. In contrast, this study concentrates on the workplace (the school) as it is experienced by teachers: physical setting and resources; organizational structures;…