This groundbreaking volume considers the ultimate fate of the comprehensive high school as individuals enter the twenty-first century. Contributors consider whether the question of the high school's seeming demise is exaggerated and why it is experiencing the many problems that it does. Essays focus on the United States, the United Kingdom,…

Critical Small Schools: Beyond Privatization in New York City Urban Educational Reform features the most current empirical research about the successes and challenges of the small schools movement and the implications of such for urban public educational policy. Situated in a climate of hierarchical reform, many of the principles of the original…

Teacher leadership is "hard." Many of the reasons are obvious: Teaching is a highly labor-intensive profession to begin with, leaving little downtime for work with other adults. School schedules are notoriously stingy with space for adult collaboration. Teachers are rarely paid to exercise leadership; when they are, they are never paid…

This volume presents the 2009 Yearbook of the National Council of Professors of Educational Administration. This year's theme is "Remembering Our Mission: Making Education and Schools Better for Students." This Yearbook contains six parts. Part 1, Invited Chapters, includes the following: (1) President's Message: Remembering Our Mission…

"Beyond Tracking" responds to the a sobering assessment of American high schools by delineating and promoting an innovative and well-defined notion of multiple pathways. The book's authors clearly distinguish their use of the term "multiple pathways" from any updated version of the tracking system that marked so many American high schools during…

Researchers and educators have examined the educational consequences of large and small schools. The major concerns documented in the literature on school size reflect four primary areas--curriculum, climate, achievement, and restructuring. This volume incorporates recent research on the effects of school size. Chapter 1 contains four research…

This packet contains 24 articles reprinted from books and journals dealing with effective staff development in small and rural schools. The articles are arranged in four sections. The first section reviews current research on staff development, discussing workable ideas, decision making principles, and general characteristics of effective staff…

This information packet contains journal articles, book chapters, conference papers, and ERIC clearinghouse publications on small schools management strategies for superintendents and principals. Topics cover (1) elements of formal team management; (2) role of the administrator in creating the environment necessary for effective schools; (3)…

Intended to serve as a handbook for the principal of the small school, this volume presents a collection of 38 articles about small schools that have appeared in the National Association of Secondary School Principals Bulletin during the past 7 years. An introduction explores the basic concept of size as it relates to schools. Five chapters group…

This book describes the creation of new, small, (strictly) public, and relatively autonomous schools that can be chosen by parents, students, and teachers located in Boston and New York City. These schools can be seen as the forerunners of an entirely new and much more democratic American public school system which attempts to achieve genuine…

This publication describes adaptations of teaching methods and instructional materials to meet the special needs of rural students in the late 1930s. These "newer" types of instruction were often child centered, and included: (1) grouping subject matter into broad divisions such as social studies and language arts rather than the traditional…

It is now widely recognized that small schools are more productive and effective than larger schools. Yet, public officials and professional educators in many rural areas continue to believe that small schools are inefficient and ineffective, a way of thinking reflected in closed schools, angry residents, and long bus rides for students. About a…

In this collection, eight master teachers with extensive experience in small, rural Alaska schools describe some of the ways they have adapted instruction to rural Alaskan circumstances. These papers discuss: (1) the characteristics of effective rural teachers; (2) adapting the "Coping!" curriculum for affective education to the cultural…

In the 1990s, educational policy in Finland shifted to decentralization and the granting of more local control to municipalities and schools, with the intent of encouraging more active, locally relevant learning. Within national guidelines, schools develop their own curricula and do their own budgeting. Case studies examine how three different…

This book challenges common assumptions about the nature of education and the need for formal schooling and provides an overview of promising alternatives to compulsory education. Following a foreword by Ivan Illich, four sections cover the philosophical roots of opposition to compulsory public education, current analyses of the public school…