Last summer, the National Education Association (NEA) developed a New Business Item to explore retrenchment: "The NEA shall make a statistical study on the effect of significant faculty retrenchment at community colleges on future faculty cuts" (NBI 78, 2022). ASA Research (ASA) conducted exploratory research in an attempt to identify…

America's education system is based on the assumption that barring illness or an extraordinary event, students are in class every weekday. So strong is this assumption that it is not even measured. It is the rare state education department, school district, or principal that can tell one how many students have missed 10% or more of the school year…

An increasing number of state leaders have begun to grapple with one of the significant challenges of K-12 reform: how to substantially increase the percentage of young people graduating from high school while also continuing to bring academic standards into alignment with the skills and knowledge required for success in higher education and…

This study examines the systems of technical assistance and support that Northwest Region states implemented during 2005-2006 for schools in need of improvement. By highlighting key characteristics and differences among state systems, the intent is to stimulate an analysis of what states can do and what issues they might address to move schools…

This paper reports findings from interviews conducted in two states in the American Northwest, Oregon and Washington, to explore how standards-based educational reform affects English language learners (ELLs) and the educational professionals who serve them. This paper focuses on two sets of multifaceted tensions: (1) organizational tensions that…

Traditional approaches to education use the level of inputs as a measure of effectiveness. Outcomes-based education (OBE) is based on the concept that educational success should be measured by what students learn, rather than by what they are taught. As a systems-level restructuring tool, OBE calls for success for all students, not just academic…

This paper presents findings of a study that examined educators' perceptions of restructuring in nine Oregon Network schools. These schools participated in a federal grant designed to help schools focus on the "central variables" of restructuring--learner outcomes, curriculum, instructional strategies, and assessment. Variables that…

The Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory asked state department of education staff members of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana to recommend Title I schools that had made significant improvement in student achievement. The Title I schools have schoolwide or targeted assistance and vary in size, grade configuration, diversity, and…

By adding courses in math, science, English, foreign languages, and geography to their admission standards, colleges and universities in many states are fostering further fragmentation of high school curricula and forcing some schools to add class periods or short-change vocational, music, and art students. Michigan, Oregon, Colorado, and New York…

This guidebook was designed to help educational practitioners and community members in Oregon understand the issues regarding school-council formation and development. In 1991 the Oregon State Legislature passed the Oregon Educational Act for the 21st Century, mandating a fundamental change in public education. The Act assigns school councils the…

Findings of a 1992 survey that examined Oregon educators' perceptions of the Oregon Educational Act for the 21st Century, a law designed to bring about fundamental change and radical restructuring in public education, are presented in this journal article. Data were derived from questionnaires that were mailed to 2,140 teachers and 120…

This bulletin explores the roles that various stakeholders have in systemic reform and offers some recommendations for action. Data were derived from a review of research on systemic education reform and interviews with four Oregon administrators. Chapter 1 provides a sampling of the diverse groups that are calling for reform and offers some of…

In 1991 the Oregon Legislature passed major school-reform legislation, the Oregon Educational Act for the 21st Century. The act contains the following provisions: early childhood education; nongraded, developmental education; outcomes-based education; comprehensive support services; and school-based decision making. Oregon's educators were not…

Investigates the extent to which external pressures on community colleges have affected the traditional mission of educational access. Findings show that the community colleges in Alberta, Arizona, British Columbia, California, Oregon, and Washington resisted restructuring and retrenchment to preserve student access. Contains 1 data table and 42…

Explores how administrators and teachers in 16 schools used facilitative power to develop site-tailored restructuring programs as part of a statewide school improvement effort. Legislatively mandated teacher leadership of site activities generated changes in school authority and accountability structures. Both principals and teachers exercised…