This study used an ethnographic approach to evaluate the impact of the South Dakota Head Start/Public School Transition Demonstration Project on school climate and parent involvement, focusing on the impact of family service coordinators. The demonstration group was composed of children and families who received comprehensive Head Start-like…

This paper presents the Australian perspective on a study conducted by the Consortium for Cross-Cultural Research in Education. Only 23 percent of the Australian teachers in the sample perceived the main objective of significant change as relating directly to their own work context. While most respondents saw themselves as "adapters" (63…

This theme issue includes four articles on high performance by poor Texas schools. In "Principal of National Blue Ribbon School Says High Poverty Schools Can Excel" (interview with Robert Zarate by Christie L. Goodman), the principal of Mary Hull Elementary School (San Antonio, Texas) describes how the high-poverty, high-minority school…

A study of junior high schools (MacDonald 1995) found that students and administrators held significantly different perceptions regarding the nature, extent, and management of violent behaviors. This paper presents findings of a study conducted 1 year later that more thoroughly examined students' perceptions of the effectiveness of current school…

Public concern about the quality of leadership in society and the quality of education have fueled the demand for educational reform, particularly in secondary schools. This paper presents preliminary findings of doctoral research that investigated how leadership is experienced and understood by students, parents, teachers, and administrators in…

This special issue of the serial SET for 1996 contains seven newly commissioned articles and four reprints all related to the education of children at risk. This issue includes: (1) "Students at Risk: An Overview" (Margaret Batten, Graeme Withers, and Jean Russell); (2) "Inquiry into Children in Education at Risk through Truancy and…

The moral framework of a carousel is used to advance possible connections between the institutional and regulatory life within prisons and teacher education programs. The moral paradigm case narrated is based on the researcher's field experience in a prison as a researcher-teacher. Connections are drawn to restrictions within a correctional…

Rigid tracking systems structure inequality and affect students' opportunity to learn. Moreover, students gain from participating in rigorous advanced courses. This case study identified the practices and processes involved in creating a school culture of detracking wherein more students participate in high school advanced courses and experience…

This paper reports the results of a longitudinal study into the personal and science teaching efficacy of a group of preservice elementary teachers. Quantitative and qualitative research methods were employed in the study. Using a pretest and a post-test one group research design, quantitative data were obtained from the administration of a…

The high levels of juvenile crime in Australian society are reflected in the schools. This paper suggests a number of issues and concepts on juvenile misbehavior which should be of interest to educators. Due to rapid changes, there is less agreement on the foundational principles of culture. It is argued that educators need to help society…

Presenting nine papers from the IEA (International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement) Reading Literacy Study that place results in an international perspective, this report address factors related to variation in literacy outcomes, both across and within countries; the teaching of reading; and the quality of life in…

Suggesting that U.S. society is an adversarial one that makes sure that certain groups of people fail, this paper explores the ascription of failure in the adversarial contexts of the family, the school, and the workplace. The paper argues that if Americans continue to ascribe pariah status to large segments of the society, then the United States…

This book is the story of the founder of the Awakening Seed School, who reveals how her childhood interests and experiences have influenced what she has created in her own school and classroom. Using the metaphor of a quilt, the book shows how teaching can be approached as a "handmade" process and how the materials of everyday life can…

The Illinois State Board of Education's Scientific Literacy Project provided extra funds to certain schools with the intent of creating demonstration schools useful as models for other schools to improve their science education programs. The study described in this document examined the impact of these funds on the target schools and attempted to…

Information has become society's chief resource; and in the emerging information age, those who have access to it become more powerful and successful than those who do not. The information age, characterized by the rise of a transnational economic organization and the enhanced importance of information, raises important issues, within the context…