The focus of this report is on the functions of the curriculum coordinator in the Chelmsford Public Schools. The role of coordinator came into being as a response to a particular set of needs. An analysis of the changing nature of those needs provided a basis for deciding whether the coordinator role should be continued in its present form;…

During its first year 1972-73, the project was concerned with total implementation of an innovative plan for scheduling high school classes--the Trimester/Modular Scheduling Plan and inservice education for teachers to help them update their teaching strategies and adapt them to the classtime allotments of the new scheduling plan. Four of the…

This book attempts to show how schools can go about humanizing their own processes and procedures. It takes the view that schools are complex social systems and that systematic changes--not merely changes in individual attitudes--are required to realize humanization. From this "systems" point of view, the most powerful tool for developing…

A working party of the Northern Ireland Department of Education has proposed a deluxe version of the Youth Opportunities Programme for the province, to reorganize secondary education and insure the right to continuous education or job training with full financial support up to age 18. (Author/SJL)

Presents a brief description of the Dutch school system's structure. Describes the most important issues that have contributed to the development of physics education resulting from changes with respect to the physics curriculum, the final physics examination, and stimulation by a Dutch curriculum development project. (RT)

Introduces the other articles in this special issue. Restructuring the schools to some means changing the "mechanics" of schooling; to others it refers to changes in relations of authority. However, there is uncertainty whether any restructuring will take place because a restructuring program will be difficult to implement. (BJV)

Criticizes, for programmatic and political reasons, two main recommendations of the Holmes Group report: (1) to transfer professional studies from the undergraduate level to the graduate level and (2) to deny undergraduate students the opportunity to major in education. Gives reasons why the Holmes proposals would not work in Indiana. (IW)

Those engaged in school restructuring can find direction in the philosophy of W. Edwards Deming, which has guided the operations of many American corporations. This paper provides an overview of Deming's Fourteen Points of Total Quality Management (TQM) and discusses their applications to education. To develop a successful TQM system, the school…

This guide presents research-based practices and elements that are essential to effective systemic reform, especially as such reform relates to the needs, challenges, and context of urban schools. It is designed to enable school leadership teams to develop, review, and revise school plans that focus on the elements of effective educational…

This paper analyzes educational finance reforms initiated in Ontario. It outlines the changes in governance, funding, and curriculum and states that reforms were implemented without proper support and forethought, resulting in chaos. The report details how the rise of a conservative government in the province led to a desire to reduce taxation and…

Describes the implementation of an internal change team by the Buffalo, New York, public school district, including stages of growth, outcomes of interventions, difficulties encountered, and lessons that appear transferable to other school settings. Results indicate that, after three years, the effort is apparently having a positive effect.…

This essay attempts to demonstrate that age segregation and subject matter specialization are two important supports of the authority of teachers and the school's ability to control students. Therefore, efforts to change these organizational patterns without considering alternative means of establishing control are doomed to failure. (Author/SJL)

A survey of Australian students, grades 7-12, is designed, implemented and discussed. Both the 1972 and 1977 surveys favored separate institutions: a compulsory high school for grades 7-10 and a secondary college for students who voluntarily continued to grades 11-12. (RL)

Educational organizations must harness forces within their own systems and in the larger environment that could stimulate changes that will make school systems viable learning systems. One way is to adopt organizational patterns and management concepts being developed by business, industry, and government. "Matrix" organizations are also…

The Dade County, Florida, school system selected 32 schools to participate in a pilot program for shared decision making. Evaluators found similar problems and solutions in a variety of school settings and classified them into 9 categories. (MLF)