A core element of almost all educational improvement efforts is an intention to improve teacher practice in order to enhance student- and system-level outcomes. To this end, a range of strategies are deployed to facilitate teacher professional learning and development, with great investments of time, financial, and human resources. However, the…

This paper documents the progress of eight middle schools, four from one school district, and four from another that were engaged in the process of implementing Professional Learning Community (PLC) concepts. The descriptive study used quantitative and qualitative information gathered in a standardized, open-ended interview with the teachers and…

Purpose: Researchers and scholars have called for greater attention to collaboration among and between educational leaders in districtwide reform. This work underlines the important social aspect of such collaboration and further investigates the type of professional interaction among/between district and school leaders particularly around the…

This paper explores Rizvi and Lingard's (2010) idea of the "local vernacular" of the global education policy trend of using high-stakes testing to increase accountability and transparency, and by extension quality, within schools and education systems in Australia. In the first part of the paper a brief context of the policy trajectory…

Sustained school-university partnerships are recognized as a means by which school physical education can move forward and sustain itself. Yet, these partnerships have been more the exception than the rule. There is little public knowledge about the benefits of sustained partnerships or of the process to achieve them. This article summarizes the…

Purpose: Scholars have focused their attention on systemic reform as a way to support instructional coherence. These efforts are often layered on to existing social relationships between school staff that are rarely taken into account when enacting reform. Social network theory posits that the structure of social relationships may influence the…

Most people would agree that schools should strive to increase their effectiveness. This handbook provides leaders and facilitators of the school-improvement process with practical information and guidelines for conducting the day-to-day work of school change and improvement. The book is organized around five questions that represent stages of the…

Collaboration is often cited as fundamental to systemic change efforts. This paper presents a process-based model for collaboration, which can be adopted as part of systemic, generative change. Schools attempting to create a collaborative culture often encounter the following problems: collaborators who fail to translate their experiences to…

This study examines whether three school-level factors identified in Fullan's theory of educational change would affect implementation levels in a curriculum change process. Effects of task-relevant interactions among teachers and between teachers and administrators were analyzed, along with teachers' sense of efficiency. (TE)

A combination of qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis support the proposition that tight cultural, structural, and interpersonal linkages in a school's organization increase the degree of implementation of new classroom practices. The three-year study involved 14 schools engaged in instructional improvement projects with an external…

This report contains findings of an evaluation of the first phase of Tayside Region's (Scotland) Devolved School Management (DSM) scheme. The evaluation sought to evaluate the first phase of implementation and to suggest ways in which the scheme and accompanying training might be improved. Sixty schools chose to participate in the first phase,…

This paper describes the development and implementation of a collaborative, interdisciplinary curriculum program, the Quest program. Implemented at a suburban New England high school, the program was loosely based on the tenets of the Coalition of Essential Schools. Ethnographical methodology included document analysis, participant observation,…

Documents the process of exploring the Reggio Emilia approach in Head Start classrooms in Iowa. Describes areas of exploration, including revising the classroom environments and daily schedules, using more documentation, instituting child-initiated projects, and collaborating on a deeper level with colleagues. Includes excerpts from children's…

Researchers who view schools as cultural organizations have tended to assume that they are monocultural entities. This paper presents a view of complex secondary schools as multicultural organizations. It discusses findings of a year-long study that examined the professional culture within two high schools in Washington State as each attempted to…

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…