Kappan's editor talks with Queensland University researcher Anna Hogan about the rapid growth of commercial activity in Australia's schools and in school systems around the world. Private businesses have always sold textbooks, classroom tools, and other goods and services to public schools, and many teachers are happy to purchase and use them,…

The author reprises "The Man in the Principal's Office," by Harry Wolcott (Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1973) to tell a story of how the principalship and thus principals have changed since the late 1960s, when the book closely examined day-to-day tasks of a principal. The differences are stark and many. Parent, community, and…

Public funding of private K-12 schooling through vouchers continues to be a contentious issue across the U.S., even though a solid majority of Americans continues to oppose them. The voucher plans run the risk of legal challenge for how they handle the rights of students with disabilities and whether they violate state constitutional provisions…

The original vision of a charter school called for heavy doses of professional teacher contribution throughout all aspects of curriculum and administration. Unfortunately, that is not how charter schools have evolved. Until now. The Minnesota Guild of Public Charter Schools is the first union-sponsored entity created for the sole purpose of…

High-quality prekindergarten programs not only are important for decreasing the school-readiness gaps between low-income and middle-income children, they also benefit wealthier children and decrease dropout and retention rates. Thus, in the last decade, many states have committed resources to providing high-quality preK programs for all children,…

A state legislator who played a key role in enacting the nation's first charter school law in Minnesota tells the story of shaping the ideas and the bill. She now looks for ways that charter schools can coexist with traditional public schools to deliver a better education for all children.

The Common Core of Standards project has strong national support, but it will not succeed if it doesn't involve teachers in grassroots development activities. The initiative should involve local consortia of schools in working with the new standards, assessments, and support tools. Local teachers would design teaching units and then share these…

Teacher education no longer deserves the denigrating stereotypes it has had in the past. With students who are more academically able than those in the past and with promising new avenues for research, teacher education institutions are on the brink of a renaissance. In addition, the sheer size of the academic teacher education enterprise ensures…

Tuscaloosa, Alabama, created a prekindergarten program for at-risk children by bringing together the entire community. With donations and volunteer help, the city managed to fund 19 classrooms serving 275 children.

New forms of schooling are emerging, driven by new technology, the recession, and public sector innovation, as well as the commitment to attain standards. Three of these new forms are virtual schooling, hybrid schools, and broker schools. While still fairly rare, these schools could become the norm if the regulatory and funding barriers to their…

Denmark's decentralized public primary and lower secondary "Folkeskole" system offers nine years of compulsory instruction, "class teachers" who coordinate other teachers, and students who remain in the same groups until graduation. A 1994 law issuing curriculum guidelines and committing teachers to team teaching will…

The U.S. Commissioner of Education describes the National Institute of Education, a national center for educational research. (LR)

Discusses the problem of reorganizing at the various levels of a school system to make the student-parent interface productive. Three areas of innovative need are research, planning, and policymaking. (JF)

Despite need for a high-technology work force, science education has deteriorated since late 1950s. Necessary correctives include more science courses, better science teachers, curriculum reform, more dependable funding, rewards for teaching excellence, and a national curriculum for science education. Business/industry/education partnerships can…

If school leaders are to bring about successful reform, they must thwart the forces that have conspired against it since the 19th century. In this article, the author identifies six "conspirators" against thoughtful school practice and offers practical suggestions for rooting them out. The six conspirators are: (1) The tendency to view schools as…