The U.S. educational system's strengths are inclusiveness, superior postsecondary education programs, improved content standards and measurements, local flexibility, and socialization and the common school. The system's weaknesses are failure to educate its non-college-bound students, understand shifting family structures, improve teacher training…

Discusses France's 1989 New Policy for Education (NPE), which identifies three ways of preventing academic failure: school policies stressing family involvement and instructional continuity; reorganization of primary education into three training cycles; and assessment of student competencies. Considers NPE's position on knowledge development.…

Project SHAPE is a two-year intervention and enrichment program for underachieving and educationally disadvantaged ninth and tenth grade students in Toledo, Ohio. Operating through teacher empowerment; curriculum development; structural organization; and student, parent, and community involvement, SHAPE's goals are developing an academically…

Shares insights gained when the author, a professor of teacher education, taught middle and high school for a half-year in the public schools. Discusses the school setting and the classroom experience, and offers observations on whether students have changed, the school curriculum, and school organization and procedures. (SR)

Describes three newly formed charter schools, noting how widely they differ in setting, purpose, and character. Notes six lessons that might be applicable to charter schools in other communities. (SR)

Examines current micropolitics literature in the context of educational reform leadership. Discusses implications of disassociated research and policymaking for systemic change, particularly when macro directions meet micro realities. Conceptual pluralism in organizational research has enriched and limited our micropolitical understanding. School…

In this report, the Commission on General Education in the 21st Century--a panel of University of California faculty and administrators--issues a call for renewed attention to general education in research universities, highlighting specific reforms for University of California campuses. In addition to analyzing the historical, institutional, and…

This book provides guidelines for leaders who seek fundamental and lasting school restructuring. Following the introduction, chapter 2 presents an explanation of the core concepts of school restructuring and explains the significance of those disabling habits of mind and practice that dominate most traditionally organized high schools and inhibit…

This paper offers a new conceptual framework for thinking about school restructuring by examining the meaning and implications of restructuring as a school improvement strategy. Conceptualization efforts are organized around a set of fundamental questions: (1) What is the meaning of restructuring? (2) What makes restructuring necessary? (3) What…

While the call to restructure schools represents the latest quest for reform and improvement in American public education, efforts to improve have always been ongoing in many schools and districts. The eight elementary schools described in this book have been engaged in the processes of improvement for many years. A major theme that emerges from…

Through scenarios describing the actions of a district restructuring committee, this book shows how the "interlocking spheres of the organization" cooperate, with roles and functions blending in leadership teams and study groups. The book provides a research-based, practical guide for renewal that keeps one goal central: improving student…

At the recommendation of Congress, the U.S. Department of Education is sponsoring a National Study of Charter Schools. This document is summary of the second-year report of this study. The second-year report presents information about charter schools for the 1996-97 school year and is based on a telephone survey designed to collect data from all…

This paper presents a retrospective view of how a school district implemented Site-Based Management (SBM). A pilot study examined the historical development of the site-based decision-making process so as to gain a better understanding of how a large urban school district implemented the process and to assess teachers' understanding of their roles…

Dynamic organizations are characterized by a compelling vision that focuses on results and employee commitment to growth. Over a period of 3 years an attempt was made to identify what it would take to create and maintain a dynamic living organization that has the ability to learn and grow on its own. Research was conducted in visits to…

In 1987, the State of Maine encouraged schools to make fundamental organizational changes necessary to ensure that all children are successful in school. This booklet reports on the progress of 10 Maine schools that are wrestling with fundamental questions about the purpose, content, and organization of schooling. Each school is profiled with a…