Faced with declining enrollments and poor morale, U.S. higher education must address the fundamental issue of how a modern society organizes to develop its people. A new human learning system requires citizen awareness of self-development needs, a sense of the individual's place in society, and interinstitutional cooperation. Examples are…

Describes the interactions among deaf and hearing students at the Kinzie School, Chicago (Illinois), an innovative elementary school where deaf and hearing students learn in inclusive classrooms with shared activities. The program evolved from two schools sharing one building to an integrated program that continues to acknowledge deaf culture.…

This case study of the origins and development of junior high schools illustrates the shrinking of aspirations and adaptation of school reform to the existing social architecture that occur as the reform becomes institutionalized. Institutional theories of organizations are used to explain this phenomenon. (SLD)

Deplores inconsistencies between the realities of today's technologically driven, information-age world and the static, constraining boxes in which state-initiated, accountability- focused reforms hold American education. We must reconceptualize schooling, curriculum content, time, grade levels, and achievement to allow more informal,…

This book presents a summary of school-choice issues, and is organized around a 1992 seminar entitled "Choice: What Role in American Education?" Each part presents a set of conference papers, followed by discussants' remarks and excerpts from audience discussion. The introduction summarizes the papers' positions and conclusions. Participants…

Whatever the past achievements of our schools, very few today bring about student learning even remotely up to the minimum requirements of a nation such as the United States; small improvements in the educational system will be of little consequence in light of the huge deficits and the country's increasing needs. Most of the large, complex plans…

A study of the effect of implementing educational innovations in local schools across the country explored several factors affecting successful improvement. This paper provides a general overview of the interrelation among these factors, with illustrative diagrams. Particular attention is paid to innovations requiring major changes in teacher…

This paper examines three areas of alternative education: (1) In what ways, and for whom, are alternative schools alternative? (2) What appear to be the unanticipated consequences of the creation of alternative schools? (3) Can the creation of alternative schols be considered a change strategy? The authors compare the ideals of alternative…

This four-chapter survey of research on the incentives for "knowledge utilization"--defined as the adoption and use of new information, products, and practices in education-- focuses on incentives inside and outside of schools and on the need, in studying incentives, to take educators' perspectives, sensibilities, and aspirations into…

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, HAS MADE EFFORTS TO IMPROVE RACIAL BALANCE IN THE SCHOOLS BY INSTITUTING VOLUNTARY, MANDATORY, AND REVERSE TRANSFER PROGRAMS, IN WHICH 1500 NEGRO AND 90 WHITE STUDENTS HAVE ALREADY PARTICIPATED. MOREOVER IN ANTICIPATION OF INCREASED INMIGRATION, THE CITY HAS DEVELOPED A NEW TYPE OF SCHOOL STRUCTURE FOR URBAN LIVING, THE…

This book focuses on the process of implementing an alternative school within a public urban system. To identify and illustrate the problems inherent in organizing and operating an alternative school the West Philadelphia Community Free School was taken as a case study. Observations and analysis are here offered on two different levels: (1)…

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 study investigated innovative trends in scheduling classes in relation to the traditional method of scheduling. The nongraded organization was examined in relation to the schools-within-a-school type of organization. Another aim of the study was to offer recommendations about scheduling and organization to administrators on the basis of the…

Individually Guided Education (IGE) is an elementary school program that replaces the self-contained classroom with an instructional unit composed of a unit leader, three to five teachers, paraprofessionals and clerical aides, and 100 to 150 children. Its program includes innovations such as nongraded instruction, team teaching, continuous…

This book is addressed to high school principals, teachers, curriculum specialists, counselors, and other educators interested in creating sound change at the building level. The theme of constructivism and constructivist thought pervades the text. Part 1 introduces the reader to constructivism and offers comparisons of a high school based on…