Five years ago, Baltimore City Public Schools seemed on the brink of a breakthrough. The district had been freed from mayoral control after more than a century, and a high-energy superintendent was leading bold moves to de-emphasize central administration, give schools greater autonomy, and engage families in a revitalized portfolio of educational…

An intriguing experiment is afoot in some of the nation's struggling public schools. New "Parent Trigger" laws passed in California and on the agenda in New York, Ohio, Colorado, and Chicago, allow parents of chronically failing schools to unseat the schools' leadership and staff. But the initiative has pitfalls. It's easy to mobilize…

Recent years have seen a growing push toward Portfolio Management Models that incorporate a variety of "providers" operating public schools. One rationale for this is that such organizations can offer distinct and innovative educational practices. This article describes the Diverse Provider Model implemented in Philadelphia from…

Choice schools provide a unique laboratory where variation in governance and management structure is predicted. We examine the results from principal surveys from traditional and choice public schools, and compare challenges faced by principals and their leadership practice. Analyses show that while differences across school types are small, there…

The author forthrightly declares in this book of essays on school reform that teachers are no more saintly than anyone else, that poor schools should be closed and lousy teachers should be fired, that philanthropy may sometimes do more harm than good, that teaching experience is not essential to being a school principal, that schools should be…

Findings of a study that explored the implications of school restructuring on the changing role of the principal are presented in this paper. Methodology involved a 4-year case study of an elementary school's restructuring effort in a moderately sized suburban school district. The school, located in a district that possessed adequate resources,…

This report from the Doing School Choice Right initiative reveals how two markedly different school districts, Milwaukee and Dayton, are confronting the challenges of competition. It explores how the two districts are affected by and respond to the pressures of school choice. Because it relies heavily on district's and school leaders' accounts of…

Discusses the institutional and organizational environment of schools of choice in the public sector, focusing on the role of the principal. The principal's leadership role is that of middle manager, entrepreneur responsible for attracting and holding parents and students, and symbol manager, responsible for developing an organizational…

Research conducted during the last decade supports the notion that educational reform must be comprehensive and systemic. This paper summarizes major issues and trends in the management of elementary-secondary education. The synthesis is designed to promote an understanding of how broad in scope systemic reform must be. Twelve chapters present…

Presents reflections of a former headmaster on the role of private schools and the importance of the choices they can provide. Proprietary schools that work say something visionary and hopeful even to public schools by illustrating the survival of multiple voices in a community. (SLD)