This toolkit is designed to provide educational leaders with information, tools, resources, and practical examples to help schools to effectively implement Title I schoolwide programs. It is intended to serve as a useful resource for states, districts, and schools to use, along with other resources and technical support, to create or refine…

In 1999, the Southern Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL) interviewed leaders from Hispanic, African American, Native American, and Asian communities in Arkansas and Oklahoma to understand what keeps parents and others from participating in community forums. After conducting more than fifty interviews, SEDL developed seven steps to help…

In a Collaborative Action Team (CAT), people representing the school, community, and home, including students, form a partnership committed to improving results for children, youth, and families. One way to determine and build on the individual and group strengths of the CAT is to perform self-assessments to enable team members to reflect on where…

The Connecticut Academy for Education implemented the School Improvement Support Team (SIST) in the Waterbury, Connecticut, Public Schools during the 1998-99 school year. The main goal of the SIST is to provide a comprehensive and cohesive set of programs and activities for improving student performance in the Waterbury Public Schools. The…

This book focuses on information literacy and facilitating change in schools. Chapters include:" What Is Information Literacy?"; "Why Information Literacy?"; "How Information Literacy Relates to National Curriculum Standards"; "Essential Components of Information Literacy"; "The Necessary Reforms and…

This technical report presents third-year analyses of the progress of five Maryland elementary schools participating in a multi-school, multi-district implementation of the Core Knowledge Curriculum (E. Hirsch, 1987, 1996). Third-year results are presented in the areas of implementation and outcomes. Factors clearly affecting implementation of…

The purpose of this sampler is to highlight the promise of interventions that might be of use to schools as they design major reforms to address barriers to student learning. The document can also be a resource guide for anyone looking for outcome data to guide work in any of the specific areas sampled. A framework for a comprehensive,…

NMSA/AMLE's position paper "This We Believe" has come to be recognized as the best articulation of the middle school concept, the accepted standard. But inevitably, a position paper speaks in visionary generalizations; to move these ideals into actual practice is a very demanding task, but one that has to be undertaken if needed and…

Federal policy has been unsuccessful in achieving some of its goals for several reasons, including viewing implementation as an act rather than as a process and assuming that organizations have uniform capacity and willingness to implement policy. A strategy of differential treatment that matches implementing organizations' characteristics is…

Describes a study that explored how changes enacted nationally are implemented locally through an examination of the implementation of P.L. 94-142. Concludes that the "universal" (national) level and the "provincial" (local) level interact to produce the final outcome of legislation. (JM)

Problem-based learning is designed to maximize active student participation in the learning process, foster student problem-solving and self-education skills, enhance student self-assessment, increase student communication skills, and improve student abilities to access and use information resources. A Texas high school's innovative problem-based…

Profiles four successful charter schools. San Diego's O'Farrell Community School provides an enrichment curriculum for inner-city middle schoolers. The Minnesota New Country School, established by three teachers, stresses individual and group projects. Saint Paul's City Academy engages 60 racially diverse youngsters with real-life construction…

Examines the impetus for and impact of a high-stakes assessment plan and reform initiative, North Carolina's ABC Plan for Public Education, from the perspective of state level policymakers and local level implementers. Finds practitioners received little support for implementing the initiative, and an adversarial relationship developed between…

A survey indicating that 77% of Connecticut family and consumer sciences teachers would retire by 2012 spurred the work of a coalition to reinstate the teacher education program at a public university. A stakeholders' forum and collaborative linkages resulted in a teacher education curriculum proposal. (Contains 12 references.) (JOW)

Current legislation that improves services to target populations includes elements of mandated reform of certain professional practices. Such a mandate puts into practice changes that many have said were needed, but it also makes implementation of these policies more difficult. (Author/BJV)