If you can believe the daily flood of mass media stories, journal articles, and white papers, the United States is facing a STEM worker crisis. Business leaders and politicians warn that the nation is falling hopelessly behind in the global economic race because our students are unprepared for and uninterested in science, technology, engineering,…

Quint reports on a synthesis evaluation of three widely used high school reform models--Talent Development, First Things First, and career academies. She highlights approaches within each model that helped high schools restructure themselves in ways that affected student outcomes, particularly for struggling 9th graders and students from…

Noting the current push for rigor in secondary school curriculums (the lead member of the "new three Rs" of rigor, relevance, and relationships), Washor and Mojkowksi take a closer look at the prevailing conception of rigor. They argue that a narrowly defining a rigorous curriculum as one with more advanced courses and more factual content…

Describes Pathways to High School Success, a restructured high school program created by the Rochester City (New York) School District to allow students to earn a diploma in 3, 4, or 5 years. (PKP)

Unlike the effective teaching research, which attempted to identify generic teaching skills, current research focuses on relationships between teaching and learning in specific subjects. Attempts to change school structure have rarely led to reliable changes in either teaching practice or student learning. When geared to students' conceptual…

Transitional outcome-based education lies in the twilight zone between traditional subject matter curriculum structures and planning processes and the future-role priorities inherent in transformational OBE. Districts go through incorporation, integration, and redefinition stages in implementing transitional OBE. Transformational OBE's guiding…

Describes case studies of three elementary schools' instructional practices for English-language learners. Finds deficient English-language learner programs in two schools, but an innovative instructional program in one of the schools wherein English-language learners are integrated into multiage classrooms taught by English as a Second Language…

Critiques the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development's 1990 report "Public Schools of Choice" for joining the chorus of skeptics. On three major counts (equity, the present evidence for choice, and its risks compared to present school organization failings), school choice offers a reasonable alternative. Includes 29…

After studying numerous schools involved in restructuring, Fred Newmann and his research team concluded that reform-minded schools must address how learning can have intellectual quality and communities of learners can be built. This interview summarizes insights from five studies recently published by the Center on Organization and Restructuring…

Project learning, with community and school staff assistance, helped a fifth-grade class transform the school lunchroom and their own behavior. A $2,500 Alcoa grant spearheaded an Italian restaurant project. Children served on five committees: public relations and advertising, management, art and design, planning and budgeting, and research. The…

The comprehensive school reform (CSR) models build consistency throughout a district while addressing the needs of individual schools. The high-quality CSR programs offer a most effective option for urban education reform.

Schools and districts rarely have a fair distribution of teacher talent. Poor children and black children are less likely to be taught by the strongest teachers and more likely to be taught by the weakest. Several districts have implemented programs to reduce the teacher quality gap. Hamilton County, Tennessee, launched an initiative that included…

An interview with the director of the recently established International Center on Outcome-Based Restructuring explains that outcome-based education focuses on defining, pursuing, and ensuring success with the same high-level outcomes for all students. (MLF)

To measure teacher involvement in decision-making, the authors developed Teacher Decision-Making Instrument, a 68-item survey with 8 categories. This instrument can be used for follow-up analyses and for comparisons between teacher and administrator responses. The Shared Education Decisions Survey is designed for use by members of school…

Faced with government-mandated restructuring, Dutch secondary schools and universities are networking to tackle school and professional development concerns. The collegial network helps teachers interpret and influence government policies, learn from one anothers' experience, tap into external expertise, and develop new educational approaches,…