Investigating University-School Partnerships: A Volume in Professional Development School Research, the fourth book in the PDS Research Series developed by the same editors, includes a collection of organized papers that represent the best and latest examples of practitioner thinking, research, and program design and evaluation in the field at the…

The focus of this book is major educational innovations, that is, programs and curricula that have achieved widespread influence. It presents such fundamentals as definitions, descriptions, theoretical and empirical bases, critical analyses, and conclusions from published research. (The book discusses only published research.) Titles of the 15…

It is not likely that the schools as presently organized and conducted and with the prevailing model of change employed for their improvement can be redesigned to meet satisfactorily the wide and varied range of expectations for them. The schools are suffering from a confusing array of expectations and a crippling overload of functions. Our…

In 1997, The International Bureau of Education (IBE) launched a series of case studies on the processes involved in the use of educational information and research. These studies describe how recent educational research has been disseminated and how educational reforms may have benefited, or not benefited, from insights gained through research.…

With real-world examples from actual schools, this book illustrates how to nurture a culture of continuous improvement, meet the needs of individual students, foster an environment of high expectations, and meet the requirements of NCLB. Each component of the Data-Driven Instructional Leadership (DDIS) model represents several branches of…

This book is about how the process of deciding about education, or education policymaking, can be informed by research-based knowledge. Part 1 offers three chapters that attempt to clarify the central issues caught up in the problem of knowledge utilization--why there is so little utilization of research in educational policymaking, how research…

This book comprises part I of the eighty-sixth annual yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education. Focusing on the theme of the ecology of school renewal, this volume consists of 12 articles by different authors. The first five articles focus on school improvement: "Structure, Process, and an Agenda" by John I. Goodlad;…

Chapters in this book, based on the efforts of the Urban Education National Network Task Force, define the nature of obstacles to the academic performance of urban students and identify, validate, and disseminate a knowledge base of theory and practice to inform decision making about urban schools. The chapters are: (1) "The Nature of the…

This book analyzes the lessons that history can teach those who wish to reform the American education system. It traces the evolving role of the federal government in educational research; explores the course of early-childhood education in the 19th and 20th centuries; examines the history of the Follow Through program, which existed from 1967 to…

This collection of essays discusses some of the models employed in the analysis of change processes. Part I provides a history of strategies for social change. Part II explores the meaning and use of systems models used to diagnose change situations. Part III deals with the intervention modes, and Part IV explores the dilemmas confronted by agents…

Educational change is presented by narrating one school district's experience in developing and implementing changes in response to court orders to racially desegregate. With the assistance of Research for Better Schools, in a "change agent" relationship, school building grade-level organization was changed to early childhood through grade 2,…

This report synthesizes the findings of four studies that focused on school districts as the center of focus for school-improvement efforts. The studies did not examine school systems that had been high performing for a long time; rather, they took their data from districts serving high percentages of students who typically struggle but were…

This volume is designed to achieve several objectives--to produce for educational leaders an up-to-date synthesis on the role of linking agents and agencies in educational improvement activities and, in the process, to identify and discuss important knowledge utilization issues of interest to the research, development, and training communities; to…

Progress in civil rights for black Americans does not appear to have been matched, at least in recent years, by equal progress in social harmony. It is argued that a considerable part of present racial difficulties are the result of commonly expressed understandings that are deeply flawed and that these flaws can be corrected only if social…

This report highlights the research on how schools across the country have successfully transformed themselves into high-performing schools. It provides suggestions for how school leaders can use this knowledge base as they examine their schools' instructional and administrative practices. Chapter titles reflect the contents: (1)…