This study examined secondary school teachers' perceptions of their school-level environment and its influence on implementation of outcomes-based education (OBE). Participating schools were in South Africa's Limpopo Province (one of its poorest rural provinces) and were implementing Curriculum 2005, a new outcomes-based approach to teaching and…

Boston Pilot Schools were created in 1994 to promote increased choice options within the school district. Unlike most urban public schools, the Pilot Schools have control over budget, staffing, curriculum, governance, and time, though they continue to operate within the Boston Public Schools. This report examines quantitative indicators of Boston…

This report reviews efforts to reform urban schools, focusing on initiatives in Tennessee and California as examples from which distric leaders may draw useful lessons. The report suggests that comprehensive school reform (CSR) offers promise to struggling urban schools by focusing on transforming the academic climate, school culture, and…

The concept of school culture offers principals and other leaders a broader framework for understanding problems and relationships within the school. School culture can be defined as the historically transmitted patterns of meaning that include the norms, values, beliefs, and myths understood by members of the school community. Researchers have…

"Smaller is better" is often the mantra of school leaders with regard to class size, while the benefits of smaller schools are ignored. Benefits of small classes seem obvious--teachers with fewer students could devote more time to each student. Conducted in 1985-89, Tennessee's Project STAR (Student/Teacher Achievement Ratio) found that…

This 20-page issue explores the opportunity for creating 21st century learning environments that not only focus on different kinds of educational architecture but also emphasize how time is used, teacher-student relationships, collaboration, the benefits of real-world projects, and community involvement. In Minnesota, high school juniors and…

Driven in part by research findings in early childhood development, the academic, business, and policy communities now recognize that high-quality preschool programs are an important way to help children reach their full potential. Although some current research suggests that teacher preparation at the four-year college degree level is the best…

Six programs are profiled that garner both deep engagement and high achievement from young people. All build upon fundamental needs of adolescent life: to register positive impact upon the world, to feel respected and connected, and to construct one's own narrative. A community action initiative at a high school in Texas' Rio Grande Valley is…

School facilities needs in rural America and the means to meet them are affected by rural population trends, building inadequacies and obsolescence, and financial problems. Overall, America's schools have seen increased public school enrollments since the mid-1980s, but rural enrollments have declined, particularly in communities with fewer than…

Building an effective classroom for all boys and girls is the first step in increasing student achievement. This curriculum guide is a collection of practical tools for teachers and fun activities for kindergarten through twelfth-grade students, developed to help all students to succeed in the classroom. The curriculum is designed to be used…

This study investigated the effects of schools' academic and disciplinary climates on student disengagement and dropping out, noting whether these effects varied by race/ethnic group. Data came from the High School Effectiveness Study (HSES), which allows contextual analysis of urban youth in their high schools, and the Common Core of Data, from…

This study investigated the attitudes and opinions of 970 students with and without learning disabilities regarding the use of computers for school-related work. Using a quasi-experimental design with three non-equivalent groups, within and between subjects effects were studied using a survey instrument. The students in grades 5 through 12 at…

In April 1997, the American Association of Community Colleges surveyed 1,450 community college presidents in order to find out the state of race and ethnic relations and diversity programming in community colleges. Respondents were asked to identify their campus climate, along a five-point scale, as "contentious" or…

This paper presents a Knowledge Sharing project at the Aarhus School of Business (Denmark). As a result of a close cooperation between the Faculty of Modern Languages and the Library of the Aarhus School of Business, a Learning Resource Centre (LRC) is being established. The LRC serves as an exploratorium for the development and testing of new…

This study examined the impact of diversity on students' self-perceived improvement in the abilities necessary to contribute positively to a pluralistic democracy. It noted how such diversity-related campus activities as exposure to multicultural curricula and opportunities to study and interact with diverse peers affected student development. The…