Summarizes major differences between, and compatibility of, site-based management (SBM) and choice as strategies for restructuring schools. Examines the following areas of comparison: focus; impact timing; nature of impacts; teacher empowerment; empowerment basis; roles assigned parents; professionalization strategy; accountability; change…

Teacher survey at 93 Saskatchewan schools involved in school improvement programs found that in the initiation phase, institutionalization of changes was associated with personal knowledge of successful innovations at other schools. The nature and quality of leadership behavior, extent of collaboration and staff involvement, and alignment with…

Articles in this special section by middle-school educators describe the multi-age team (MAT) experiment at a Georgia middle school from 1993 onward. In 1992, a project inspired by "Turning Points" recommendations addressing teacher and administrator empowerment was launched at another Georgia school. (MLH)

This paper describes the professional growth of two teacher educators. It notes obstacles to teachers' professional development, and investigates the factors which make some teachers less vulnerable to challenges. The paper observes that teacher educators who engage in self-study can reach a renewed understanding of their roles both in and beyond…

Many schools across the country face persistent teacher working condition challenges that are closely related to high teacher turnover rates and chronic difficulties in recruiting and retaining teachers. Center for Teaching Quality (CTQ) research examining working conditions survey results in both North Carolina and South Carolina demonstrates…

Preparing educators for the challenges of an empowered school community demands collaboration among teacher educators, practitioners, and the community. This paper proposes a theoretical model of empowerment which supports university-school-community ventures. The model, which embraces intra-university collaboration and university-school-community…

In some educational systems, legislative action mandates teacher participation in decision making through the formation of policymaking bodies such as school councils. This paper presents findings of a study that investigated high school teachers' perceptions of empowerment in schools with and without school councils. The study investigated…

This book describes teachers' work in urban New York City (New York) schools during a time of intense school reform in the 1920s. Teachers and schools coped with an ever-growing and diverse student body. Extensive interviews of teachers from this era shows the complexity of teachers' work, their problems with reform implementation, and the…

The paper develops a conceptual framework for teacher leadership and empirically verifies the existence of teacher leadership skills through a survey of 170 teachers. The model of transformational leadership, based on several leadership theories, is presented to advance increased teacher participation in instructional leadership. The model…

As teachers are probably the most invaluable source of field-based informants regarding (in)effective classroom practices, teacher-training should equip teachers with tools for classroom-based teacher-led research. More importantly, these tools should sustain trainees' research-eagerness as well as autonomous professional development beyond…

The case studies, research, and projects presented here strike at the very heart of effective teaching. The specific practices to improve student performance will spark classroom discussion and improve teacher practice. After a foreword by Frances van Tassell and an introduction by Edith M. Guyton and Julie Rainer Dangel, this book is divided into…

This paper shows that policymakers and researchers have changed their views about school improvement and the role of teachers in the process, suggesting that educational reform initiatives challenge classroom teachers to make sense of new policies, ideas, programs, and their own work. It examines calls for reform, highlighting: the 1957 launch of…

High quality education for all students is promoted nationwide. University teacher educators must deal with reality as they provide instruction for prospective teachers. If schools and teachers are to improve, then college faculty must also improve. This must be a unified effort in which higher education institutions work with existing and new…

This study examined teachers' attraction to school council service and factors that impacted that attraction. Participants were randomly selected public school teachers enrolled in graduate education courses at three Kentucky state universities. They performed three tasks. First, they completed a biographical form that yielded descriptive…

Discussion of the need for educational reform in elementary and secondary public schools focuses on a new masters degree program in Educational Change and Technology Innovation developed at Walden University (Minnesota) to help empower educators through distance education courses. Curriculum, courses, and admissions criteria are appended. (LRW)