Describes school restructuring themes that may be promoted through staff development, including developing a purpose and shared vision, challenging traditional norms of schooling, creating a collaborative school culture, establishing new roles in school governance, and encouraging reflective practice and critical inquiry. Addresses the role of…

One of the current trends in California community colleges is an increased emphasis on learning. This study focuses on personnel at colleges that have embraced the goal of becoming learning-centered institutions and poses the question: How are faculty, staff, and administrators prepared to achieve this goal? The study included a review of the…

Describes a model to illustrate the range of beliefs that mathematics teachers may hold about how mathematics should be taught. The model explored relates philosophy and beliefs through a study of the literature. Concludes that faculty development is one way to change beliefs and break the cycle that perpetuates the traditional approach to…

In the spring of 2005, the author, the retiring president of EDUCAUSE, was asked to be the keynote speaker at the EDUCAUSE Western Regional Conference. The conference theme was "Winds of Change: Charting the Course for Technology in Challenging Times." What that brought to his mind was the era of the great sailing ships of the eighteenth and…

The organic curriculum is an attempt to meet challenges to education in a systematic way instead of dealing with each as an isolated segment. It proposes to radically change the present secondary educational program in the direction of the learner-oriented curriculum. The objective of the program is to integrate academic training, occupational…

Based on a 1994 symposium and intended to be used with a video, this monograph attempts to bring together the perspectives of gifted education and school reform. Individual chapters address the following topics: (1) changes in gifted education, changes in general education, the need to find a balance, a history of tensions, and remaining tensions;…

The Council for Curriculum and Learning was appointed to develop a plan for implementing the promises of the New Compact for Learning of New York State. This document considers the roles of the Council and state and local districts in working toward New Compact ideas. The New Compact requires a new vision of curriculum, instruction, and assessment…

Contends that the National Geographic Society's Teaching Geography Project is an inservice teacher education success story. Describes the origins, objectives, and development of the project. Summarizes the impact of the project and contends that its success is the result of the workshop format and guided practice in instructional strategies. (CFR)

Authentic performance assessments--when used simultaneously with matching curricular practices--are a promising development for practitioners and students alike. A major benefit for practitioners appears to be the opportunity to redefine the curriculum and guide instruction. Benefits for students include the opportunity to engage in authentic work…

West Virginia's school improvement plan, emphasizing learning outcomes, mandates excellent education for all students. Following an executive summary, this paper discusses, first, the conflict between excellence and equity in educational reform, and West Virginia's intent to resolve that conflict; second, the legal foundations of the master plan,…

As a democratic country which aims at nurturing and sustaining its envied democracy, organisations in Botswana are expected and encouraged to build and maintain democratic structures and principles. In September 1993, the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Botswana and the then British Overseas Development Agency (ODA) launched an ambitious…

Describes how a group of primary schools in Northern Ireland plan to make the shift to a differentiated curriculum. Differentiation, in this context, refers to a broad effort to teach to individual students' abilities and needs. Concludes that although progress was made, more work needs to be done. (MJP)

THIS DOCUMENT CONTAINS FOUR REPORTS PREPARED TO ASSIST EDUCATORS, LEGISLATORS, AND LAY CITIZENS TO SEE MORE CLEARLY HOW INTEREST, INVOLVEMENT, AND CONCERN CAN BE TRANSPLANTED INTO PLANNING AND ACTION. AUTHORS AND REPORT SUBJECTS INCLUDE--(1) EDGAR L. MORPHET, "THE FUTURE IN THE PRESENT--PLANNING FOR IMPROVEMENTS IN EDUCATION," (2)…

At the beginning of his tenure in 1987, the superintendent of Clear Creek School District (Colorado) found that the district had no written K-12 curriculum, no ongoing process for developing such a curriculum, and no systematic process for staff development. To provide for change based on projected student needs for the 21st century, the…

Contains 11 articles, including first-person accounts, on the work and work environment of teachers. Discusses the factors that make teaching satisfying or frustrating and offers suggestions for change in both the policy and organizational framework of the schools and the roles, relationships, and ethos knitting together individuals in particular…