Rural school districts face unique challenges in procuring funds, recruiting staff, and obtaining high-quality technical assistance. This environment creates problems in identifying high-quality instructional materials and implementing best practices. A collaborative learning network can address these challenges by providing access to professional…

Current federally supported technical assistance priorities and operations are not well aligned with the school-improvement process. This article discusses technical assistance centers' organization, funding, and size; the topics they address; the recipients, gatekeepers, and trainers they work with; convening services provided; coordination…

Describes an enrollment-forecasting process in which technical experts and local community stakeholders worked together to produce cost-effective, yet fairly accurate data. The large Oregon district employing the process gained insights to guide its attendance-zone and facilities-planning decisions and to garner community support. (MLH)

A research project analyzed statements about education's contribution to development as a justification for external assistance to education in developing countries by comparing the perspectives of Finnish governmental and public documents and the international perspective in United Nations documents. Differences and parallels in the points of…

The future of Greece's well-being will depend on improving educational performance to boost productivity and improve social outcomes. In the current economic context, with the need to get best value for spending, Greece must and can address inefficiencies in its education system. The challenges are significant. For example, Greece lags behind many…

This paper reports preliminary results of two models of school reform initiated in Texas during the summer of 1997. The Texas Accelerated Schools Model began with an intense 5-day training of school teams from schools that had completed a "buy-in" process, along with their external coach, The Schoolwide Planning Summer Institutes began…

Describes a collaborative project to design a personnel development system for Northeast rural educators. Defines collaboration. Explains initiation of collaborative staff development and the collaborative role of colleges and universities. Applies collaborative planning to leadership training and describes the training of a leadership team for…

This inaugural edition of "Equity Coalition" introduces a new publication from the Programs for Educational Opportunity at the University of Michigan, one of 10 regional centers funded by the Federal Government to provide technical assistance to school districts on issues concerning race, gender, and national origin equity. This issue…

The position of private elementary and secondary education can be improved by the development of closer relationships with the chief state school officer. This interaction can be increased by the organization of a private education advisory committee at the state level. Attention should be paid to the activities of legislative committees and state…

The Regional Educational Laboratory Program is the U.S. Department of Education's largest research and development investment designed to help educators, policymakers, and communities improve schools and help all students attain their potential. The network of 10 regional laboratories works to ensure that those involved in education improvement at…

A collaborative project of the Gwinnett County Schools and Georgia State University, federally funded, was designed as an inservice teacher development program to improve the instructional competence of English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) and mainstream teachers working with limited-English-proficient (LEP) students in elementary and secondary…

This paper describes efforts in Oregon to improve school services for students with orthopedic impairments. A state technical assistance team was created which worked with regional coordinators. The team established the following goals: providing physical and occupational therapy that is delivered by a team, is directly related to the child's…

Action research in the Cobb County (Georgia) school district is described. This research is being conducted in the district under three main approaches: (1) co-researcher projects addressing central level issues; (2) district-wide projects; and (3) school-focused action research, including minigrants to teachers. The first three…

Educational development in Peru is discussed as part of a series surveying UNESCO's involvement in educational cooperation with developing nations. There are seven chapters to the report, which is written in Spanish. The first chapter describes Peru's national education policy, and discusses how it relates to the country's plan for national…

The monograph investigates and evaluates UNESCO's role in educational development in Africa. The document is presented in four major sections. Section I clarifies key terms including cooperation (collaboration between two nations or organizations on a project or program), and aid (external financial contributions with or without strings attached).…