Outlines the primary arguments and much of the available evidence on desirable school size. Summarizes important factors in the history of U.S. school consolidation. Suggests that the key to the school size debate may be educational control rather than educational quality. Contains 39 references. (SV)

Analyzes and compares research on the Effective Schools Movement and the New York (New York) City School Improvement Project. Proposes a synthesis of the two traditions that can be used to implement equity-based educational innovations. (FMW)

Presents an historical overview of the development of research from a narrow input-output approach to a holistic approach that evaluates within-school processes. Finds that selective processes produce higher academic achievement. (CFR)

Highlights patterns in the progression from local to state and federal control, from program improvement to accountability, from evaluation of process to outcome and back, and from simple to complex models. Also examines the trend toward developing a system that includes all students instead of just those in special education. (RJM)

Addresses one way in which spending less on public schools might actually improve school performance. The article focuses on bringing together those who have the greatest stake in school performance (the parents and the community) as planners and caretakers of their children's education. Such collaboration is viewed as strengthening understanding…

Describes "essential" classrooms, where students concentrate on essential subjects and learn to think for themselves, at Fairdale High School in Louisville (Kentucky). The accompanying interview with T. R. Sizer outlines this new direction in education. The most credible agent for change is a comparable school already involved. (SLD)

Evaluation of French immersion programs' effectiveness in Canadian schools should include considering accessibility to the program, its organizational setting, teachers' behavior in bilingual classes, and principals' leadership role. French immersion must be understood in a context that recognizes it as a complete bilingual education linking…

The Education Finance and Productivity Center of the U.S. Department of Education aims to provide insight into making elementary, secondary, and higher education more productive. The articles of this theme collection explore approaches that are being taken to help frame a research strategy to examine educational productivity. (SLD)

The effects that principals' instructional leadership has on school achievement/outcomes were examined using questionnaire data from the principal and at least 4 teachers from 31 elementary schools and 25 high schools in California. Achievement outcomes can be predicted based on teachers' and principals' perceptions of instructional leadership.…

Over 25 years, the effective schools movement has contributed to a results-oriented focus on education, raising the following 3 policy questions: (1) what is worth knowing; (2) how do we know when students know it; and (3) who decides what should be known and how to assess it? (SLD)

If those who work for school restructuring and those who advocate more diverse curricula could unite their constituencies, they would be a significant force. Politically, these two groups often work far too separately. Both curriculum and teaching must be revised to reflect the nation's pluralist national experience. (SLD)

School improvement that considers families moves toward greater understanding of learning barriers. Strategies designed to make adolescent students "feel good" must be rejected for those that encourage family involvement by creating family partnerships, using the community as a learning laboratory, promoting performance-oriented tasks that tap…

Options are presented for accountability in Chapter 1 schools and identification of low-performing schools. Two options are suggested that could move Chapter 1 toward more local control or toward more national control. In either case, the shortcomings of using normal curve equivalent gains on standardized tests should be recognized. (SLD)

Summarizes a midwestern study of single-parent seventh and eighth graders' special school needs and the effectiveness of school policies, programs, and practices in meeting those needs. The principals surveyed felt schools were more effective than parents in meeting certain student needs. Although principals felt specific approaches were…

Reviews the emerging second wave of research generated by many different countries and relates findings about good school characteristics to broader managerial issues concerned with the actual implementation of effective schools research. School improvement programs should be school-based and "whole school"-oriented and dependent on outside…