School improvement might be initiated by state or district mandate, or it might be motivated by the concerns of school personnel. Teachers and administrators frequently enter the process with some idea of what needs to be reformed or improved, but issues can be overemphasized or overlooked if the process does not begin with a comprehensive needs…

The purpose of this guide is to help chronically struggling schools restructure. "Restructuring" means major, rapid changes that affect how a school is led and how instruction is delivered. Restructuring is essential in achieving rapid improvements in student learning. The focus is on helping education leaders choose strategies that…

In this second volume of "The Soul of Educational Leadership" series, editors Paul D. Houston, Alan M. Blankstein, and Robert W. Cole offer creative perspectives on the challenges of reframing leadership practice. Presenting key strategies from leadership experts such as Thomas Sergiovanni and Dennis Sparks, this compact resource combines…

This guidebook provides evaluation assistance to district and school staff. It was published in response to the Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration (CSRD) Program, passed by Congress in 1997 to provide incentives and support for low-performing, high-poverty schools. CSRD is an attempt to ensure that schools conduct evaluation of whole-school…

Written to help educators maximize student learning, this publication outlines a process for designing and implementing an improvement and restructuring plan based on knowledge acquisition, needs assessment, indepth planning, and development of commitment to change. Research has identified 14 conditions for successful schools: high attendance,…

This guide is designed to help districts and schools, participating in the federally sponsored Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration Program, meet the evaluation requirements of the program as well as their own needs for useful evaluation information. Much of the information is applicable to any local jurisdiction engaged in school reform that…

When studying different types of returns to education, educational reforms are commonly used in the economics literature as a source of exogenous variation in education. The Swedish compulsory school reform is one example; the reform extended compulsory education throughout the country, in different municipalities at different points in time. Such…

This handbook explains site-based management (SBM) in schools to help those who wish to decentralize their operation so that the campus-level staff have flexibility in making decisions that affect the students at their location. The text is divided into four major sections, each devoted to a particular area of concern under the SBM concept.…

Since 1992, the New American Schools Development Corporation (NASDC) has supported nine teams that developed designs for high-performance schools. This workbook is a guide developed for NASDC and for school-based reformers. It presents a framework for student and program evaluation called progress assessment. Chapters 2 through 5 provide…

This work provides school change leaders with tools, techniques, tips, examples, illustrations, and stories about promoting school change. Tools provided include histograms, surveys, run charts, weighted voting, force-field analysis, decision matrices, and many others. Chapter 1, "Introduction," applies a matrix for asking questions…

"Success for All" and "Roots and Wings" are comprehensive restructuring programs for elementary schools designed to make the idea that "all children can learn" into a practical, daily organizing principle for schools, especially those serving many children placed at risk. This book describes the programs in detail,…

This guide is the fourth in a series of guidelines designed to be a framework for positive action at the school site and in the classroom through the High Schools That Work (HSTW) program, an effort to raise the achievement of career-bound students. It details the process of accomplishing the HSTW's goals through an ongoing staff development…

This book offers a comprehensive guide to the Career Academy high school model, including detailed descriptions of the model, practical advice, case histories, histories of existing programs, evaluation results, and an analysis of the model in the context of other research and policy analysis. Part 1 of 3 gives an overview of the dilemmas and…

This information packet attempts to identify issues in the interface between special and regular education and to highlight positive examples of regular education/special education cooperative action. A discussion of issues in the regular/special education relationship focuses on role relationships between regular and special education…

This guide is intended to assist faculty senates in West Virginia as they develop strategic plans required by state legislation for the integration of students with exceptional needs into regular classrooms. Following a summary of the legislation, required plan components are described, and a copy of the required form is presented. Sections of the…