This report explores the technical, political, and socio-cultural dimensions of the scaling up process of Success for All (SFA), one of the nation's most successful and extensively researched whole-school change models. SFA, a reform effort aimed at elementary schools serving disadvantaged children, is currently being implemented in over 475…

The theme of the 1996 Public Education Network conference was "Examining the Intersections: Education and Race." From different points of view, speakers examined the need for an ongoing commitment to ensuring equal opportunity and access to learning in all public schools. The first selection is the report of a panel discussion about the role and…

One prospect for the future of the Schools and Staffing Survey of the National Center for Data Collection is to continue in the direction set by its three previous rounds of surveys. Another approach, the one recommended in this paper, is to make the SASS the main vehicle of NCES for organizational information about U.S. schools from kindergarten…

This study examined how recent federal, state, and district policies shape the design and implementation of schoolwide programs for Title I students in the Chicago Public Schools (Illinois). Four inner city elementary schools were selected for the study. Two had academic outcomes higher than expected, and the other two had lower academic outcomes…

The assumption that educational expansion is linked to increased equality of opportunity is discounted in an examination of the status of women faculty in five British universities from 1963 to 1980. It was found that, despite an auspicious social context, but given certain structural and attitudinal resistances, the inequality of women faculty…

The author reviews the changes in China's educational policy since the downfall of the "Gang of Four," emphasizing the nation's return to stricter academic standards and credentialing. (SJL)

Beginning with an historical review of public school role in the mediation of social and ethnocultural class conflicts, political problems for curriculum policy makers are discussed. These problems are created by the simultaneous needs for the curriculum to maintain and change society. (CP)

This article explores the underutilization of consultation in educating students and the challenges consultation faces as an educational technology. The article also explains the politics of school reform and their impact on the research-to-practice gap. Recommendations are made on how to reconcile the fundamental differences separating…

Despite the rosy image projected by child-centered reformers, zealots and profiteers are really driving the charter school movement. Charter schools cannot flourish without drastic wage reductions or huge spending increases, nor will they benefit America's poorest children. The market, which has already destroyed kids' neighborhoods and parents'…

In response to stagnating economic conditions, the Swedish government introduced numerous "reforms," including a voucher scheme for approved independent schools. Since 1992, enrollments in independent schools have increased only 1%, segregation and interschool disparities have increased, and supports for special-needs children have…

Describes a study that examined the concepts of power, influence, and issues as they related to establishing a new school district. The decision to break away from an existing school district and to establish a new one provided a unique opportunity to study community action in support of and in opposition to public school reform. (MLH)

An analysis of the way Italy has responded to the changing demands that society places on higher education begins with the enrollment boom of the early 1960s and traces the public debate to the present. (MSE)

Curricular changes in Romania's higher education system precipitated by the abruptly altered political situation and new decision-making processes are examined. Need for change existed because of political outdatedness of some disciplines, faculty frustration over poor research-curriculum connections, long-standing curricular immobility, and need…

This examination of the New American Schools Development Corporation initiative in Bensenville (Illinois) details the controversy over the reform effort and argues that factors such as school governance, local control, and school finance played major roles in determining program outcomes. The importance of political influences in reform efforts is…

Broad proposals for reform of higher education in Hungary are outlined. It is argued that the change needed is so great that neither higher education nor government can accomplish it independently; instead, limited and controlled conflicts between the interest of higher education and those of society must precipitate action. (MSE)