Four vanguard districts are committed to raising academic scores of students by increasing academic learning time; to turning average schools for disadvantaged students into exemplary schools; and, by carefully charting the process, to providing a scenario that can be useful to other schools. (Author/JM)

Researcher-reformer Ronald Edmonds believes he knows why some urban schools teach poor children successfully. In this interview Edmonds elaborates on his list of the five characteristics of effective schools. (Author/JM)

Skillfully interviewing students can elicit useful information about the quality of the educational program. (JM)

Assessed the implementation level of Carnegie recommendations for middle schools in Louisiana and investigated whether implementing these recommendations was related to desirable student and school outcomes, using the Middle School Practices Questionnaire. Implementation results were not promising. However, implementing recommended middle-level…

Proponents of public/private school choice assume that private schools are more efficient and that parents can distinguish between schools of differing quality and select schools that perform well. A study based on the 1988 National Education Longitudinal Study data shows that private schools are no more efficient in using educational resources…

A nationwide examination of school report cards produced 10 categories of often-reported information: standardized testing, student engagement, school success, school environment, staffing and teacher characteristics, program offerings, school facilities, student services, student background characteristics, and school finances. Reports should be…

The 10-year-old High Schools that Work program of the Southern Regional Education Board has improved test scores of vocational students and attempts to demonstrate that career-bound students can handle high-level curriculum. Despite successes, some states and school districts are reluctant to adopt the program. (SK)

Researcher Harris Cooper examined studies on homework and student achievement and found that homework substantially raises high school students' achievement; in junior high, homework raises students' achievement only about half as much; and in elementary grades, homework has no discernible effect on students' achievement. (MLF)

Examines recent responses of several school effectiveness researchers to concerns of their critics. Examines complexity of debate over school effectiveness research (SER), value of pragmatism, impact of social class, significance of methodological problems, value of current attempts to theorize SER, relationship of SER to educational politics and…

United States has shown considerable development within the school effectiveness and improvement fields. U.S. effectiveness research is contextually sensitive, small in quantity, and increasingly conducted within a "mixed methods" tradition. There is progress in describing and analyzing teacher and school effects and devising…

Examines changes in the conceptualization of schooling over time from an organizational perspective. Explores how compensation systems might be better designed to match alternative organizational designs, considering scientific management, effective schools, content-driven schooling, and high standards/high involvement schools as organizational…

"Phi Delta Kappan" conducted 28 public forums exploring participants' views about public schools' purposes, effectiveness, and needed changes. Once engaged, community members were enthusiastic about discussing public schools' future, indicated they left the forums better informed, and found the three-question format productive. Planners…

Compares secondary and junior schools' influence on (British) 16 year-olds' performance on the General Certificate in Secondary Education examination. Presents a mathematical model to explain performance variations, using a cohort of 758 students in 48 junior schools and 116 secondary schools. There is a strong continuity of junior school effects…

In the opinions of 52 high schools students who kept journals regarding their feelings about school, schools are irrelevant, dull, sterile, or worse; they despised unenthusiastic teachers teaching uninteresting lessons from textbooks. The increased emphasis on testing and accountability will probably will not change these opinions. (JOW)

Describes the project "Effective School Improvement," designed to investigate the relationship between effectiveness and improvement in eight European countries. Presents a framework for the analysis of the case studies on school improvement projects in this special issue. (SLD)