School districts in the United States are responding to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in significantly different ways. The authors of this report fielded the third American School District Panel (ASDP) survey in June 2021 to discover what changes districts are making to their academic and nonacademic offerings for the upcoming…

Aimed at secondary school library media specialists who are undertaking the transition to block scheduling, this book examines the essential components of the library media program in a block-scheduled school and provides useful handouts, lesson plans, and the experiences of four practitioners through their case studies. The following chapters are…

Two schools in Michigan received ARRA SIG (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act School Improvement Grants) funds to enable them to implement their improvement efforts. This paper describes the outcomes of these two ARRA SIG recipient schools: (1) Phoenix Elementary-Middle School; and (2) Arthur Hill High School. The experiences of these…

One of the biggest obstacles to technology use in education is the attitude that computers are--just one more thing to do--in an overloaded day. Argues that a cooperative-learning atmosphere and teacher willingness to take risks will increase technology integration at all levels of education. (PEN)

In 2002, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (DPI) initiated an innovative and ambitious program for improving student learning through the effective use of instructional technology. Until that point, most technology projects in schools were geared toward integrating technology into the curriculum, and they tended to focus on…

For nearly a century this university has been training teachers and administrators for public schools. The university has benefited from a rich heritage, which includes being the first teachers college in Mississippi. Having established itself as the state's primary institution for the training of teachers it would be easy to rest on past laurels…

This book draws together the experiences, insights, and findings of some of the world's leading staff developers in open and flexible education. It is designed to provide an overview of the trends, influences and events which are shaping the work of these professionals, and the policy changes, processes and outcomes they are helping to bring about…

This report describes school operation changes in scheduling, curriculum, decisionmaking powers, and individualization of instruction that are concurrent with the adoption of differentiated staffing. The author defines differentiated staffing, explains where and at what levels it has been utilized, provides descriptions of results achieved, gives…

This book provides information and guidance to rural community members for improving their schools through community involvement. It encourages new ways of thinking about the purposes of education, the roles of schools, and methods of teaching and learning. After establishing the purpose and need for community involvement in rural small schools,…

This paper discusses practices, issues, and trends in Japanese middle school education that have bearing on U.S. education, grouping them into four categories. Section 1, "School Reform," discusses central control of education, opportunities for student creativity, improved teacher education, and the examination system. Section 2,…

Noting that academic failure begins early and that the focus of school reform should be at the elementary level, this book describes the Basic School, an idea based on best practice in elementary education. A Basic School pushes school reform back to the first years of formal education; gives priority to language and suggests a coherent core of…

The latest available statistics for 1958-59 indicate there were 8,084 small schools and that they had enrolled in them 1,650,000 pupils. It is a matter of conjecture how much these figures will be reduced in the next 10 years, but there is considerable doubt that the reduction will be a truly significant one. In any event the current figures are…

The bilingual (Chinese/English) journal published annually for Hong Kong educators contains articles in a wide range of areas and at all levels of education. Articles include: "Micropolitics in Managing Bi-Sessional Primary Schools: A Case Study of the Interactions between Partner School Heads" (Cheung Wing-ming); "On Features of…

This book contains 15 papers written by contributors from all areas of Great Britain in further and higher education. The following papers are included: "Learning to Be Flexible" (Diana Thomas); "Managing Change: Towards a New Paradigm?" (Mac Stephenson, Timothy Lehmann); "Open Learning: Educational Opportunity or…

Research funded by the Flexible Learning Advisory Group during 2000-2002 on issues related to online learning and delivery in vocational education and training in Australia was consolidated. Key findings included the following: (1) most students who experienced online learning did so in a conventional class, using face-to-face and other strategies…