During the past decade, New York City undertook a district-wide high school reform that is perhaps unprecedented in its scope, scale, and pace. Between fall 2002 and fall 2008, the school district closed 23 large failing high schools (with graduation rates below 45 percent), opened 216 new small high schools (with different missions, structures,…

Since the passage of the "No Child Left Behind Act of 2001" (NCLB), the evidence that it is working has continued to grow. Because of this law, teachers and parents are getting the information and help they need to help every child reach his or her best in school--and as a result, student achievement is rising across America. While…

This article presents findings from a 2-year qualitative study that examined teacher and administrator involvement with implementation of school reform initiatives in a public secondary school. Findings suggest that implementation had both positive and negative consequences. Although reforms advanced the school's ongoing discussion about…

Outcomes of a series of meetings held in 1990 by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) Roundtable on Public School Choice are summarized in this document's six chapters. Chapter 1 discusses the components (including motivations, vision formation, leadership, the design process, and the types of choice available) involved in…

The implementation of a shared decision making (SDM) project in a large public secondary school was studied for three years. Factors that enhanced the SDM process were the confidence stakeholders had in themselves, resource availability, creation of democratic rules and procedures, early and concrete accomplishments, and the principal's support.…

Provides an overview of the Whole Village Project in Boston (Massachusetts), a two-year project that fosters partnerships among parents, teachers, administrators, and community members to bring about comprehensive reform in these urban schools. Each school identified its own most urgent problem and then developed a comprehensive approach through…

Incorporating community service into the education of public school students in the United States is becoming a national trend and an important research topic. The implementation of the Louis Feinstein Public Service Program in Sharon Public Schools in Massachusetts was evaluated. A structured interview approach was used to gain information about…

This document presents findings of a study that examined the extent to which middle-grade reforms in California actually affected the restructuring of middle-level education throughout the state. The California Middle Grades Task Force's report, "Caught in the Middle," led to the creation of the California Middle Grades Reform Model,…

The Chicago School Reform Act provided a rare opportunity for those who were involved in the development of the legislation to be primarily responsible for the initial implementation of the plan. The governance model of the Reform Act, which is the subject of this study, provided for an elected school counsel at each of 542 schools and maintained…

Three inter-related phenomena push the need for educational change and school improvement. These are the change from an agrarian to an industrial, and from an industrial to an information society; the changing demographics that see an increase in student racial and cultural diversity; and the need for new services for low income students. The…

An evaluation review was done of the training activities of the Creating a New Approach to Learning Project (Project CANAL) during the first half of Year 4 of the project. The review covered types of training opportunities that were available, observations on participation by members of the groups for whom the training was designed, some…

Three programs sponsored by the Seattle (Washington) public schools' Office of Academic Achievement were evaluated: the Academic Achievement Project, Early Childhood Model (ECM) Schools, and Pilot Projects. Academic Achievement projects were designed to increase the academic achievement of at-risk learners and to decrease disproportionality. The…

One of five articles on professional development schools in this theme issue. Discusses six developmental stages of collaboration--formation, conceptualization, development, implementation, evaluation, and termination/reformation--in the implementation of professional development schools at the University of South Carolina, Columbia, including…

The school improvement process of the Springfield (Massachusetts) Public School System is offered as a model for school reform. The efforts in Springfield began from the premise that institutions do not reform themselves, and that pressure from the outside, enough to be noticed, but not enough to disrupt, was necessary to spur reform. The work in…

Within the arena of public school reform, teacher empowerment and participation in the decision making process at the building level are of paramount importance. A collaborative team of teacher educators and public school staff was assembled to assess various perceptions of site-based decision making throughout Georgia. A random sample of 400…