This article reports on part of a study conducted to collate the policies and practices of two successful distance education providers of the developed world with those of a provider in Bangladesh in order to inform a culturally appropriate distance education framework for a developing country. This article also describes an innovative theoretical…

Direct assessment competency-based education (CBE) is an online, self-directed learning innovation that is disrupting higher education. This study examined the development and early diffusion of direct assessment CBE at a private, nonprofit university. The purpose of this case study was to investigate the presence of organizational factors and the…

The first charter school law was passed in Minnesota in 1991 and with it, a new school reform movement began. After two decades, 41 states and Washington D.C. have adopted charter legislation. This special issue provides an opportunity for scholars to reflect upon the promises and limitations of charter schools and to offer policy advice for those…

Jeb Bush campaigned for governor on a clear and bracing set of education reforms in 1998. Having won office, he immediately pursued a dual-track strategy for reforming Florida's K-12 education system: standards and accountability for public schools, choice and options for parents. Florida lawmakers followed those reforms with additional measures.…

Louisiana has emerged as one of the most fascinating states in the nation for education reform. The state's creative response to rebuilding the New Orleans education system in the wake of Hurricane Katrina is now considered a potential model for reformers across the nation. Governor Bobby Jindal has carried the reforms further in pushing for…

Today, the U.S. Department of Education joins the National Task Force on Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement, the American Commonwealth Partnership, and the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools in a new national call to action to infuse and enhance civic learning and democratic engagement for all students throughout the American…

It is widely acknowledged that innovation will be necessary to dramatically improve public services in America. But innovation in the public sector doesn't happen in a vacuum; innovation happens at the nexus of policy, research, capital, and practice. This project looks at one case study--education--by analyzing some of the key aspects of an…

This historical account is told as a narrative from the authors' perspectives of Project Giant Step, which might be one of the most successful teaching-of-reading projects in history. There are a few purposes in telling this story. First, it is in times of chaos that real innovation can be made. It is then that people take chances and it is not…

The Harambee schools make up 75 percent of all secondary schools in Kenya, but only 7 percent of students enrolled in the University of Nairobi have attended these schools. Describes a typical Harambee school in Uvumbi and discusses serious problems schools are experiencing throughout Kenya, despite correct recognition that education is major…

Article discussed the development of a new educational calendar that will entail attendance at school all year-round and which will allow for greater student enrollment, educational efficiency, and flexible scheduling. (RK)

Olomana School, operated by the Hawaiian Department of Education, serves youths who have been placed in the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility (HYCF), the Hawaii State Hospital (HSH), and the Detention Home (DH). During the 1988 summer semester, Olomana School implemented the Extended School Year Program; the school day was expanded to six periods…

The changing economic and social situation, the rapid expansion of technology, and the explosion of available knowledge are fundamentally altering the world economy. Today, our nation's students need not only basic skills, but higher level reasoning and communication and thinking ability, as well. In Connecticut, a committee was formed to…

Higher education is beginning to place emphasis on process rather than on selection, and educators are increasingly willing to deal with individual differences in learners. Three teaching models illustrate the continuum of change: (1) the remedial model, (2) the educator's model, and (3) the pluralistic model. (MW)

This paper examines how to encourage widespread adoption of comprehensive school-reform models--adoption outside the schools and districts that took part in the development process. It refers to such models as "design-based" schools. The paper defines what is meant by a school design and describes receptive school and district…

The application of rational methods to improve student outcomes in a school district is described. Issues in school reform development are addressed, followed by a description of a restructuring program implemented in the Charleston County (South Carolina) School District to reduce grade retention and the dropout rate. The program was evaluated by…