Widespread educational reform will occur only if encouraged by a coherent policy environment that explicitly supports fundamental change and unleashes the imagination and energy of students, teachers, parents, and community leaders. To prepare students well for the 21st century, our education system requires an interdisciplinary environment, a…

This guide is designed to provide additional resources for technology educators who are attempting to shift their programs from industrial arts to technology education. An introduction describes the original demonstration site project, a consortium of Northeastern U.S. schools, the primary goal of which was the advancement of technological…

Based on research of literature-based instruction in elementary schools that serve large numbers of economically-disadvantaged children, this paper discusses 10 factors that can enhance the implementation of literature-based instruction. The paper suggests that teachers: (1) provide extensive professional development opportunities; (2) provide for…

This guide is designed as a resource for use in implementing the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) in New Zealand secondary schools. Discussed in the introduction are the development of flexible learning in secondary schools, the context for the New Zealand curriculum, the NQF, and transition to flexible learner-centered schools. Section 1…

This appendix was created to minimize aspects of the data analysis carried out for the quantitative study of Transition Years Initiatives in Ontario (Canada) schools. Technical appendices for the multivariate statistical procedures used in this analysis were needed for chapters 5 through 9 of the main report. The bulk of these appendices are path…

These recommendations concerning the integration of students with and without disabilities in public schools begin with an operational definition of integration and a list of general parameters guiding successful integration. Recommendations are then offered in several areas, including: (1) training, which should be systematic, comprehensive,…

The Chicago (Illinois) School Reform Act of 1988 (Public Act 85-1418) requires each attendance center in the Chicago Public Schools system to prepare a three-year School Improvement Plan. This guide was prepared to help schools coordinate various plans and to link improvement planning with budgeting. The guide includes four principal sections. The…

The purpose of this publication is to help school district leaders improve the use of technology in schools through the design and implementation of a planning process. Three levels of the process are noted, including strategic planning of overall direction for program improvement, program planning of objectives and management, and curriculum…

A program planning model developed in collaboration with primary decision makers and program planners is described in this study. A 6-month pilot test of the planning document was evaluated by a followup questionnaire of program planners and decision makers. Results indicate that a majority of the respondents viewed the planning model as…

This document contains brief descriptions of 100 school district initiatives taken in response to legislator and state department of education mandated educational reforms. Each description, contributed by a paticipant, is indexed by reform category, school district cluster, implementation level, and state. Section divisions in the index of reform…

The ability of university programs in educational administration to provide students with on-the-job experience has been severely constrained by lack of available resources and school districts' apparent lack of interest. Internship programs typically lack (1) a critical mass of internship settings; (2) a sufficiently large number of students; (3)…

This publication is designed to assist educators to integrate multicultural education into the entire school curriculum. Part I includes chapters on defining multicultural education, planning for multicultural education, setting goals and objectives, developing steps or activities, managing resources for multicultural education, and conducting…

The National Policy Board for Educational Administration (NPBEA) recommends a nine-item agenda for reform of the preparation of educational administrators. The agenda addresses reform issues in the areas of people, programs, and assessment. In addition to describing the agenda, this document: (1) depicts the problems to which the agenda is…

A comparison is made between two broad strategies for instituting reform in secondary schools: the bottom-up, process-oriented approach typified by the California School Improvement Program and the top-down content-oriented approach typified by the more recent reform effort in California, the School Reform approach. The comparison was made in…

In the course of developing and passing the South Carolina Education Improvement Act of 1984, those behind the legislative effort observed that several factors affect successful educational reform. First, reform must be comprehensive. The 1984 act has provisions relating to academic standards, basic skills, instructional improvement,…