This study examines and describes (1) why parents of struggling readers decide they must become active advocates for changes in their child's education and (2) how such parents learn to negotiate school organization in this advocacy. Advocacy is defined as any activity parents go about to access appropriate reading instruction for their child,…

This follow-up study presents findings from 11 structured interviews that were conducted with principals engaged in a conversion from a large comprehensive high school to six small schools. Key findings are (a) the greatest barrier to improvement was entrenched instructional patterns and (b) goals of college readiness and social/emotional…

Serious re-examination of participatory traditions of democracy is long overdue. Iconically central to such traditions of democratic education is the practice of whole School Meetings. More usually associated with radical work within the private sector, School Meetings are here explored in detail through two examples from publicly funded…

Every administrative action a principal will take is reduced to a decision. These decisions are made in an arena of overlapping moralities stemming from the organizational morality in concert with his/her personal morality. As Barnard stated, it is impossible to divorce one from the other. The purpose of this study was to attempt to describe and…

Case studies of two high schools that have been turned around from failing to successful show different ways in which failing high schools can be made to succeed. Both high schools concentrated on first helping incoming freshman, and both reforms were driven by data. They differed in staffing and the focus of their first year of reform.

The purpose of this document is to explore the drivers for reorganization, the common experiences shared by states and the challenges and successes experienced. The goal is to inform staff in other special education units as they consider reorganization. This activity was undertaken as part of an agreement between Project Forum at the National…

The organization of a school can best be understood as a loosely coupled set of overlapping systems: the student system concerned with student education and development, the faculty system concerned with maintaining professional standards and effective teaching, the parent system focused on the relationship between the school and the child, and…

In large continental landmasses such as Australia, forms of education, including correspondence schooling, emerged in the early twentieth century that allowed children in remote regions to access education. To make such schooling possible, other "technologies" of state provision were mobilised such as the postal system, rail network, and…

How a school is organized--or, more specifically, the extent to which teachers work together and treat one another as professionals--can influence elementary school students' mathematics achievement. So suggest the authors of a recent study on the impact of school organization on longitudinal student achievement (Moller, Stephanie, Roslyn A.…

This study is part of the International Study of Principal Preparation project and reports on a Canadian Catholic Board's mentoring programme for novice school principals. This programme aims to produce effective managers and provide formal collegial support. A pragmatic, mixed-method approach involving interviews with participants along with an…

In this study of Pennsylvania Charter Schools; the focus was on the qualifications, duties, and role perceptions of the special education supervisors. Using role theory as a theoretical lens, an interpretational framework was developed in order to both form a survey instrument and to assist in interpreting the participant responses. This case…

This much-needed guide shows how to implement positive behavior support (PBS) strategies in secondary settings, using a three-tiered approach. The authors adapt the core ideas of PBS to the developmental context of adolescence and the organizational structures of middle schools and junior and senior high schools. With an emphasis on data-based…

Scholars and reformers in the United States have called for converting large high schools into smaller units to provide a more effective, personal, and culturally responsive education for all students. Current literature argues that such "conversion high schools" should break into fully autonomous small schools rather than more…

After providing technical assistance to the federal Smaller Learning Community Program grantees, the authors developed five lessons for successful programs: 1) A strong vision of improved instruction needs to drive high school reorganization; 2) A strong vision of improved instruction focuses on strengthening the instructional core; 3)…

Colleges of education must instantiate their candidates' knowledge, skills, and dispositions for accreditation. Professors often have candidates reflect on field experience as a way to enhance their learning. This study examines reflections of 43 candidates over a 2-year period. Candidates engaged in an after-school enrichment program as…