In every state in the U.S., students have been victims of sexual abuse at the hands of teachers and other adults at schools. Charol Shakeshaft asks why educators, policy makers, and others connected with schools haven't done more to address this problem but have instead looked the other way, sometimes even allowing colleagues to quietly transfer…

Based on the author's experience with the Atlas Community Project, this article identifies six different types of knowledge needed to mount a comprehensive reform effort: technical, resource, local, process, strategic, and organizational. Efforts to promote comprehensive changes do not necessarily make the reform processes markedly more successful…

Four principles emerged from 1980s reforms that should guide scaling-up strategies in California and elsewhere. School improvement efforts must be designed to create active, thinking curriculum in specific disciplines; success should be judged by whether increasing numbers of students reach agreed-upon performance goals. Initiatives should be…

Standards can be used as tools for standardization or customization. To accelerate learning for all students, standards must reject the dominant standardization (sorting) approach to education. Standards should represent attainment levels, be divorced from timetables and age levels, apply also to nonacademic areas, allow choice within limits, and…

From the demise of numerous "New Social Studies" programs initiated 25 years ago have sprung some guidelines for revising curricula and promoting educational change. Some lessons: Avoid too many course offerings, involve teachers in early stages of projects, and design programs to meet major goals. Above all, such programs need to be relevant to…

The notion that there is no template or model for American schools--just guiding principals and a deep respect for individual school culture--informs the work of the Coalition of Essential Schools and the Annenberg Institute founded by Ted Sizer. Today the Coalition is supporting clusters of small schools to help make school choice more…

After sampling the public and professional mood through protracted hearings, Quebec's Ministry of Education has decreed there will be no "90-day wonders" (typical of Teach for America programs); the skills and knowledge needed by new teachers can be effectively acquired only through a rigorous, multiyear, university-level program. (MLH)