Recent incorporation of a performance assessment in Arizona's test mandate provides an opportunity to examine the assumptions and beliefs underlying measurement-driven reform. Efforts to meld cognitive-constructivist beliefs about pupil learning and assessment contradict behaviorist beliefs about changing teachers and reforming schools. Mandates…

Title II of Goals 2000 created the National Educational Standards and Improvement Council (NESIC), a federally funded agency to devise national content and performance standards in key academic subjects and certify state-submitted standards. Since Republicans have taken over Congress, this council is finished. Any private successor must mount…

The luxury of "slow change," so characteristic of schools over the years, may be giving way under the pressure of Britain's 1988 Education Reform Act. Primary headteachers have lived through two years of government-set agendas. Different groups' conflicting interests have created new priorities for headteachers and require new coping…

Explores the relationships among school climate, group openness, group trust, and the implementation of two Kentucky reform initiatives: school-based decision making and nongraded primary classes. Participants included 292 teachers in 13 schools. The Tennessee School Climate Inventory and the Group Openness and Trust Scale were used. Results…

In Pennsylvania, introduction of student learning outcomes became a major battle rather than a reasoned debate, and final language of the proposed regulations was somewhat muted. Because the state failed to cultivate the grass-roots support necessary for reform, a vocal, effective opposition emerged, and sensation overshadowed real issues.…

This study examined actual implementation of inclusion as part of a district and university restructuring initiative. Participant observation and interviews did not find any movement of special education students to general education despite use of the term "inclusion." Two themes were seen to explain this failure to understand and implement…

Describes the dissemination and implementation of the Iowa Chautauqua Program model of professional development for advancing science education reforms within the United States and in several settings abroad. Contains 15 references. (WRM)

Examines implementation of educational reforms in the Latin American-Caribbean region during the 1990s, based on national case studies (Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Jamaica, and Paraguay), descriptions of nationally supported projects, and discussions with reformers and researchers. Despite similarities in reforms' origins and components, each…

By signing a Consent Decree in March 1996, the Los Angeles Unified School District admitted its system had serious problems in delivering special-education services to over 65,000 students and agreed to correct the problems in compliance with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. This article explains how districts can incorporate…

Kentucky's ungraded Primary School Program is defined by seven critical attributes: developmentally appropriate educational practices, multiage/multiability classrooms, continuous progress, authentic assessments, qualitative reporting methods, professional teamwork, and positive parent involvement. This article explains these attributes,…

Focuses on lessons educators might learn from the Intensified Campaign for the Global Eradication of Smallpox. Outlines the history of smallpox eradication. Discusses the eradication effort's obstacles, campaign, and costs and benefits. Considers five factors relevant to the successful implementation of educational programs. (CMK)

Discusses the ways implementing the Carnegie Corporation's "Turning Points" principles can revitalize middle school reform and improve student outcomes. Considers the web of educational principles that constitutes these recommendations and the role of communities, teachers, and students in implementing them. (JPB)

Surveys at Darton College (Albany, Georgia) revealed that faculty felt little personal connection to existing pre-produced telecourses and that students felt isolated from the on-campus community. Describes the implementation, success, and subsequent expansion of a system allowing the transmission of courses to home-based students as they are…

School reform implementations most often proceed from an ahistorical position. A study analyzing articles in three volumes of each of two education journals ("Phi Delta Kappan" and "Educational Leadership") revealed that 17 to 48 percent had no references to support assertions; few references were older than 15 years. (Contains…

In 1994, Congress reauthorized Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and passed the Goals 2000: Education America Act. Together, these two laws were supposed to support the development and implementation of standards-based, systemic reform initiatives in the states. Despite these high hopes, Goals 2000 and Title I faced a number of…