"The Redesign of Urban School Systems" provides a uniquely valuable resource for anyone involved in preparing education leaders for the political and practical realities of district-based school reform. Edited by two leading experts in education reform, this absorbing volume brings together twelve teaching cases on urban school…

"Social Network Theory and Educational Change" offers a provocative and fascinating exploration of how social networks in schools can impede or facilitate the work of education reform. Drawing on the work of leading scholars, the book comprises a series of studies examining networks among teachers and school leaders, contrasting formal…

Many urban schools are undergoing restructuring due to the problems they face and their resistance to traditional solutions. This volume deals with the various ways in which eight case-study schools in Chicago implemented strategies that called for whole-school change and system reform. The book is comprised of 10 chapters: (1)…

This book is the second in a two-volume series of studies of educational change organized around three themes--systemic change, the transformation of policy into practice, and curriculum contexts. The book presents case studies from Australia, Great Britain, Israel, the United States, and New Zealand to illustrate the cross-cultural complexity of…

"Learning to Lead Together: The Promise and Challenge of Sharing Leadership" examines the dilemmas for school leaders and administrators, and the benefits for schools and students, when principals work with teachers (and their communities) to share leadership. Most schools function within existing hierarchical structures that contradict…

School reform leaders from Chicago (Illinois), Denver (Colorado), New York (New York), Seattle (Washington), Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), and Los Angeles (California) created the Cross City Campaign for Urban School Reform to work to improve urban education so that all urban youth are well-prepared for postsecondary education, work, and…

This collection of papers offers advice on restructuring education to create heterogeneous schools, with the goal of creating happy, comfortable, and successful learning environments for all the children and adults who learn and teach in them. Section I, titled "A Rationale for Restructuring and the Change Process," contains the following papers:…

This book examines the nature of comprehensive, large scale historical and social changes that contextualize educational reform, and it amplifies the meaning of lessons learned by those who have assisted in change efforts. It also examines how the rhetoric of educational change may fall short of the reality, as translated to processes and…

Sixteen chapters discuss the relationship among literacy, culture, and difference in education; restructuring school curricula to meet the needs of those traditionally excluded from education's dominant discourse; the social and cultural context of literacy; and literacy's highly political nature. After "Series Introduction: Literacy,…

To change American high schools, new collective imagination is needed. In an age where the word "teenager" or "adolescent" often inspires fear or frustration, leaders must overhaul the public's attitude about their high school students. In a time when many teachers believe their efforts cannot overcome poverty and other barriers to learning…

The first report from this study, "Leading From The Middle: Mid-Level District Staff and Instructional Improvement," was published in August, 2004. Since its publication, Leading from the Middle has been an important tool in helping school and district staff, policy makers, researchers, and reform advocates think differently about the role of the…

This volume features the reform journeys of six American high schools. The six high schools portrayed here include four large comprehensive high schools (Oakland Technical High in Oakland, California, and Brighton High in Boston, Massachusetts, are urban; Sir Francis Drake in Marin County, California, and Rex Putnam in North Clackamas, Oregon, are…

This volume presents a variety of different implementations of the professional development school concept of teacher education in the following 17 author-contributed chapters: "School-University Partnerships and Partner Schools" (John Goodlad); "Design Principles and Criteria for Professional Development Schools" (Frank…