This article reviews educational initiatives of state and federal government that were designed to remedy the effects of racial segregation on Black public school students in the United States after the famous "Brown v. Board of Education" decisions. Several policy and legal initiatives are reviewed, including school desegregation,…

This article is the fifth in a yearlong series by the public policy department that will more closely examine the recommendations made in ACTE's high school reform position statement. The fifth recommendation in ACTE's high school reform position statement is to create incentives for students to pursue the core curriculum in an interest-based…

Noting the current push for rigor in secondary school curriculums (the lead member of the "new three Rs" of rigor, relevance, and relationships), Washor and Mojkowksi take a closer look at the prevailing conception of rigor. They argue that a narrowly defining a rigorous curriculum as one with more advanced courses and more factual content…

Purpose: "If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time, but if you have come because your liberation is bound with mine, then come, let's work together". These words of Lill Watson, an indigenous activist, frame the context for this article. The purpose of this research was to examine the historical evolution of "grassroots movement…

To understand the role of the media in schooling and school reform, it is necessary to examine how the media collude in the construction of the political spectacle, which Edelman (1988) called a meaning machine of alternative realities. The media uses spectacle to generate points of view, perceptions, anxieties, aspirations, and strategies to…

The increased emphasis on standards-based school accountability since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is focusing critical attention on the professional development of school principals and their ability to meet the challenges of improving student outcomes. While rural school districts are dealing with many of the same issues…

The Colorado Strategic Options Initiative promotes the restructuring and redesign of education to enable all schools and communities to meet all students' and citizens' needs in the future. The concept of restructuring education may be seen as part of an evolutionary process from the 20th century industrial, assembly-line model to the eventual…

Incubators are organizations that aim to decrease the learning curve for new schools and increase the likelihood that promising school plans will succeed. Incubators offer communities an innovative new way to support locally-initiated school designs. This design guide is intended to help people who are interested in starting a school incubator…

Instructional quality is one of the most important factors in effective teaching. Without it, school reform is impossible. How can leaders develop and implement strategies to improve faculty quality and then manage the process of school reform in today's complex school environments? The authors answer this question through the study of a systemic…

The nation's governors have put high school reform at the top of their agendas, charging their association--the National Governors Association--with energizing a multi-year effort to overhaul high school education. Across the country, reformers are stepping forward with new high school "designs" aimed at preparing students for the challenges of…

In fall 2002, three large traditional high schools in Chicago, Illinois, started a conversion process that opened five new small schools. In partnership with Mills College, the Consortium on Chicago School Research designed a short-term, interview-based study to provide a snapshot of these new small schools in their first year of planning and…

In announcing the start of the work of New American Schools (NAS) in 1991, President George Bush offered the challenge of designing new schools for the year 2000 and beyond. In 2000, NAS remains committed to the mission of providing schools with the vision and tools they need to transform themselves based on exemplary models for comprehensive…

This study investigated how the Accelerated Schools Project (ASP) school restructuring model fostered the capacity for teachers to become leaders, noting improvements that happened as a result of teachers becoming leaders. Data came from three rural ASP schools attended by low socioeconomic status PreK-6 students. Interviews with teachers and the…

The purpose of this guidebook is to clarify why policymakers should expand the focus of school reform to encompass a reframing and restructuring of education support programs and services and to offer some guidance on how to go about doing so. Section 1 deals with the need to restructure support services and offers ideas for new directions.…

This report, the third annual report on the Restructuring and Collaboration Fund (R&CF) of the Higher Education Funding Council for England, summarizes the progress and projects being funded through the R&CF that had been approved before the end of December 2000. Section 1 is a summary table listing all projects and grant allocations…