Describes a study examining the effects of a new, reform-driven secondary mathematics curriculum (the University of Chicago School Mathematics Project) on retaining students in the mathematics pipeline. In all three sites studied, the UCSMP curriculum led to slightly fewer math dropouts. Ability and school/socioeconomic effects may be more…

Reports results of an evaluation of a 2-year support program for implementing adaptive teaching (individualized instruction) in Dutch elementary schools. Teachers perceived working with personal action plans and cooperating with colleagues as positive activities. Most teachers also experienced sufficient support from school leaders. (Contains 23…

A group of teachers at a large, urban Texas district participated in a project to develop and teach study units based on E.D. Hirsch's Core Knowledge Curriculum. Drawing on their deliberations and university coursework, teachers selected topics, built units, and devised literacy strategies to teach core knowledge content. (Contains 34 references.)…

Urges educators to beware adopting new programs during the coming academic year. A better approach is to adapt worthy innovations without throwing out last year's innovations. The history of American educational practice supports this approach, emphasizing the value of familiar continuity sprinkled with modest and occasionally some significant…

In 1985, the Medicine Hat School District in southern Alberta, Canada, initiated the Model for Teacher Supervision and Evaluation to change school district culture and promote teachers' professional development and empowerment. The change mechanism was clinical supervision--a process allowing teachers to determine and achieve their own goals. The…

By 1993, New York City's multicultural and innovative Children of the Rainbow curriculum had been discontinued and the education chancellor fired. This article examines the curriculum's development and implementation and the controversies surrounding it. After-effects linger, as other U.S. districts address various social issues in the school…

Describes a study that evaluated implementation of curriculum materials for secondary social studies in the Netherlands. The evaluation focused on individual teachers' actual use of these materials in their classrooms. A large discrepancy emerged between the curriculum developers' original intentions and the observed instructional processes.…

A British headteacher ponders a tumultuous decade in school management. The national curriculum was one major problem. There have also been radical, deleterious changes in the ways schools are funded, governed, managed, planned, and inspected; how teachers are educated; and the terms and conditions of teacher employment. Competition for pupils has…

The deficit model of assessment dominating education in postwar Britain largely disappeared in the 1970s. Inherent weaknesses of the 11-plus exam, which still survives, may explain current obsession with formative assessment. Record keeping, grading, and other difficulties with changes wrought by the 1988 Education Reform Act and the National…

This study examines whether three school-level factors identified in Fullan's theory of educational change would affect implementation levels in a curriculum change process. Effects of task-relevant interactions among teachers and between teachers and administrators were analyzed, along with teachers' sense of efficiency. (TE)

Project SHAPE is a two-year intervention and enrichment program for underachieving and educationally disadvantaged ninth and tenth grade students in Toledo, Ohio. Operating through teacher empowerment; curriculum development; structural organization; and student, parent, and community involvement, SHAPE's goals are developing an academically…

Investigates the role of district supervisors (assistant superintendents) in a British Columbia school district's implementation of a peer coaching network for principals and teachers. Two school improvement approaches are also compared. With one exception, results indicate a need for greater district support of principals as school leaders. (CJH)

This study was conducted to learn why teachers continue to use a nutrition education innovation that was implemented by 21 teachers over three years. An ex post facto design was used to assess the significance of three implementation variables: the teacher, internal support, and external support. Results suggest teacher perceptions of the…

Explores the ethical issues involved in using standardized tests to implement a state-level policy. Examines the fourth grade science program evaluation test administered in New York State for the first time in 1989. A utilitarian view of ethics ignores the consequences of testing for different constituents, obviates caring behavior, and damages…

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…