Argues that the alleged effectiveness of block scheduling does not appear to rest on any meaningful research base. Discusses research on block scheduling, student achievement and attitudes toward learning, and teachers' and parents' attitudes. Notes that in the absence of data, educators should be cautious in reconfiguring the education of tens of…

Makes an analogy that educational leadership in this changing society is a lot like paddling a kayak through calm waters. Suggests that if public school leaders do not instill a sense of urgency in times of calm waters, schools may lose focus and fail to evolve and change. (SG)

Reviews the issues surrounding merit pay: its history, its general failure, and the problem of measuring good pedagogy. (SR)

Argues that, although middle, junior, and senior high school educators should be proud that they are leading the way for their counterparts in higher education, they must also recognize that they cannot slacken their own efforts for quality and accountability. (RS)

Discusses difficulties of, hindrances to, and the necessity for school restructuring. (SR)

Argues that, when American schools fail, it is because they are still educating (and often educating well) for the Industrial Age, whereas American schools need to educate for the Information Age, which has different requirements for successful life and work. (SR)

Argues that establishing special programs (for at-risk students or for other students) only delays making badly needed, dramatic, long-overdue changes in traditional practices of schooling. (SR)

Discusses the influence of the coaching paradigm on teaching reform and argues for an understanding of its limitations. Suggests that vital educational goals, such as the acquisition of knowledge and the employment of understanding and values, cannot be met by adherence to the coaching model. (RS)

Argues that, as educators rush to reform their practices, they need to keep in mind the lesson of their past mistakes. Suggests that, if educators do not start paying more attention to being clear about assumptions and intentions as they design and promote new practices, the lack of clarity will contaminate and undermine all reform efforts. (RS)

Discusses outcome-based education (OBE): what it is, its underlying beliefs, why schools should change to it, objections to it, needs it can fulfill, and how it begins. (SR)

Uses Monty Python's 1970s comical vignette, "The Spanish Inquisition Sketch," as a metaphor for the process educators experience as they encounter each new curriculum-reform effort. (SR)

Suggests school choice is easily the most controversial education policy issue of our time. Hopes that this special issue will provide readers with information to understand it at a deeper level, so that they can develop informed opinions about whether school choice is, on the whole, a desirable policy change. Discusses the superficial level of…

Discusses the possibility that the public for public education might be better conceptualized as "publics." Introduces the notion of educational publics as an alternative to thinking about the taxpayers, parents, and community members served by government-run schools as one, monolithic public sphere. Suggests designing charter school laws as if…

Urges awareness of change as a constant factor in education and in life. Views change as a pendulum set in motion by societal mores and expectations, affecting public education as well as other areas of life. (SR)

This is the ninth article in a series on education in foreign lands. It concerns a distant minority, the Lapps, and the efforts of the Scandinavian governments, Sweden, Norway and Finland, to accommodate them. (Editor/RK)