Presents and analyzes the first year's results of a longitudinal study designed to measure teachers' and principals' stages of concern regarding implementation of a potentially controversial innovation--benchmark testing. Results indicate that the responding 241 teachers and 52 principals were positively disposed and interested in making the…

Indicators that the prospects for meaningful curricular reform are not optimistic are developed in this paper. The first premise is that research on curricular reform has been limited in its applicability to practitioner concerns. Another dilemma in the translation of research on curricular reform for practitioners is the continuing wide gap in…

Based on data gatered from interviews, observations, and document reviews during a 3-year qualitative examination of curriculum change projects in 14 elementary, junior, and senior high schools, this paper argues that the spread of new classroom practices within a school beyond a core committee of planners is determined by the orgaanizational…

A study was done at the University of Colorado to determine the qualifications, priorities, behaviors, and authority base of effective curriculum directors in six Colorado school districts. The study employed both qualitative and quantitative research. The qualitative data were obtained by observing and interviewing the curriculum directors and by…

Examines the effects of educational reforms and how one-sided reform ideologies, which provide little practical guidance, were reinterpreted and modified by principals and teachers. Uses a multilevel case study to analyze the relations between ideology and practice using functional, conflict, and loose-coupling theories. (FMW)

Asserts that the definition of diversity has changed from one of simply adding issues and subjects to a curriculum to one of transforming the relations between parts, and in the process reconceiving the whole. Presents several curricular models and goals for student learning that incorporate this approach. (MJP)

This paper recounts the legal, political, and educational changes in former East Germany as the nation has become reunified, and considers the implications of reunification for institutional research at East German universities. After a brief sketch of legal, geographic, and demographic highlights, the decrepit conditions of East German university…

These papers represent the efforts of individual researchers from five countries: Australia, Belgium, Canada, The Netherlands and the United States. Each paper reports on educational change in a different country, based on the Concerns-Based Adoption Model developed at the Research and Development Center for Teacher Education at the University of…

The effectiveness of strategies employed by colleges and universities to reverse a trend of declining enrollment was studied. A comparison was undertaken of 59 institutions that were successful (S) and 54 institutions that were unsuccessful (U) in reversing enrollment decline. In addition to questionnaire response data, extensive demographic data…

Discusses research, teaching, and extension opportunities for rural sociologists in current social/economic conditions of agriculture/rural America. Describes challenges to the resource base of rural sociology and ways to extend the discipline. Stresses need to expand linkages to the general scientific community and to increase communication among…

Discusses problems associated with reform of secondary school curricula in Kenya in the period immediately after independence. Follows the course of two innovations--School Mathematics of East Africa (SMEA) and the Africanization of the literature curriculum--and discusses various reasons for their failure and for Kenya's continued dependence on…

This article discusses problems with traditional top-down methods of disseminating educational innovations to teachers and proposes a conceptual framework in which teachers share a primary role with educational researchers in the development of innovative practices. Focus is on the critical dimensions of teacher change as they participate in the…

Making changes in the area of grouping for instruction is difficult because it involves adjustments in the curriculum, in teacher planning, and in teacher attitudes. A concern that the present form of grouping may result in intellectual and racial discrimination began in the Central Office and the Curriculum Office of the Crete-Monee School…

Articulates a challenge for today's arts and science faculties to help prepare teacher candidates who are predominantly white and female to work in schools with increasingly diverse populations. Argues for a more culturally responsive curriculum and modeling culturally responsive teaching. (MJP)

In July 1969, an Israeli parliament decision instigated an educational reform focused on curriculum development, teacher education, new buildings, new equipment, and a change from 8 to 6 years in elementary school and from 4 to 6 years in secondary school. Dropouts, useless curricula, job market demands for better education, and integration and…