Purpose: The past decade has seen considerable debate about how to best evaluate the efficacy of educational improvement initiatives, and members of the educational leadership research community have entered the debate with great energy. Throughout this debate, the use of randomized experiments has been a particularly contentious subject. This…

Virginia Beach School System administrators and supervisors were personally interviewed about their reactions to the first year of the 45-15 plan where students attend school 45 days and break 15 days year round. Opinions were expressed about the increase and utilization of space, problems of maintaining proportional enrollments, rising time…

Studies are divided into two groups--results of experimental programs and effects of traditional schools. The research supports the effectiveness of nontraditional school programs. (Author/IRT)

Described in this study is a two-year experimental program in teacher education which provided 14 student teachers with opportunity to experiment with the process of schooling and to learn from it. As a result, six community-based vacation schools were created. Specific sections of the book deal with: (1) the challenge of the times (late sixties)…

The University of New Mexico established an innovative learner-centered, problem-based, community-oriented medical education program that runs parallel to the traditional program. The programs both fostered acceptance of the experiment and permitted comparison of results. The innovation resulted in higher achievement and reinforced interest in…