Alberta Education is currently considering options for enhancing health and learning outcomes of students and is exploring opportunities to develop new wellness-related curriculum. This literature review is a component of this exploratory process that will inform curriculum development and was undertaken to: (1) provide a comprehensive review of…

In this article, we review research from the organizational sciences to develop lessons for educators and policy makers. The approach is an integrative review of the literature. We employ a comprehensive process to unpack and make sense of the turnaround literature from the organizational sciences. We rely on strategies appropriate for document…

Without more unanimity about which characteristics contribute to a school's effectiveness, it is difficult to know which characteristics to use as a focus for improvement. (Author/JM)

The objectives of the Pennsylvania School Improvement Program (PSIP), funded by the National Institute of Education from 1976 to 1980, were to help schools analyze basic skills needs and improve student performance through the use of research-based programs and techniques. The data uncovered the need to improve instructional management, improve…

This paper reviews the literature on school effects and school improvement. The literature reveals that some schools are much more effective than others at optimizing achievement and other student outcomes, and that schools judged successful by these criteria tend to have in common certain leadership, goal commitment, and school atmosphere factors…

This sourcebook synthesizes findings from studies on school improvement programs. The prefatory overview emphasizes key themes and issues addressed in the seven papers that comprise the body of the document, discusses the role of staff development, and examines the process of translating research into policy. The papers summarize the findings of…

The Meadows Model for preservice preparation was designed to speed the process of preparing educational leaders in Texas. Previous programs allowed teachers seeking administrative licensure to complete the program at their own pace. The Meadows Model shortens this process to 15 months. This model incorporates a number of specific features, which…

Examines some problems with school effectiveness research, including small samples, indentification error, and inappropriate comparisons. Nevertheless, the article concludes that characteristics of effective schools can be useful in school improvement as long as facile solutions are avoided in favor of incremental long-term cultural change.…

This overview of teacher inservice education in Sweden has been complied with particular focus on the role of teacher inservice education (INSET) within the school development context. The term INSET refers to short-cycle training inputs, which tend to be of a general nature, e.g., social development, working methods in the classroom or…

THE FOLLOWING IS THE FULL TEXT OF THIS DOCUMENT: Two elements in particular appear to be common to effective schools: high expectations for student achievement on the part of school staff members, and strong instructional leadership on the part of the school principal or another staff member. Other elements that are common to a significant number…

Federal legislation passed in 1994 and the Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration program (CSRD) encourage high-poverty Title I schools to adopt prepackaged research-based models of schoolwide reform. The nine components of CSRD and key ingredients for its implementation are discussed. Eleanor Roosevelt Elementary School (Vancouver, Washington)…

Reviews 11 articles on education, including: (1) "A Strategy for Helping Students Learn How to Learn," by M. McClanaghan; (2) "What Works in School Improvement?" by A. Harris; (3) "Just a Matter of Time," by F. Smith; and (4) "Selected Pre-Writing Treatments," by Brodney, Reeves, and Kazelskis. (NB)

This report reviews recent research on strategies that have been found to promote useful and effective inservice training programs in desegregated schools. The first section presents approaches for planning and implementing inservice training for desegregation. The second section describes inservice desegregation training programs that focus on:…

Successful experimental programs, in which teachers have been trained to increase their students' academic achievement, were analyzed to identify common teacher functions. Six recent studies in which teachers implemented training and in which students had higher achievement were examined. Conclusions drawn from the analysis include: (1) Students…

In this interview with New American Schools (NAS) editors, the author explains how design-based assistance to schools works and suggests reasons why it might help schools become more successful in teaching all students to high standards. Questions cover such areas as the features of the NAS effort that distinguish it from other well-known models;…