This landmark volume presents the work of the American Educational Research Association's Panel on Research and Teacher Education. It represents a systematic effort to apply a common set of scholarly lenses to a range of important topics in teacher education. The Panel's charge was twofold: (1) to create for the larger educational research…

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was passed with a promise to "change the culture of America's schools." A focus on accountability for results is among its main vehicles for transformation, including the requirement that significant action be taken in schools and districts that continue to underperform academically. Toward that end, NCLB…

Research for Action (RFA) has been tracking changes in 86 Philadelphia schools that were originally identified as "low-performing" and targeted for intervention following the state takeover of the School District of Philadelphia in 2001. This document outlines some of the numerous changes that have occurred in these "Original…

Schools committed to the success of all children must have an array of activities designed to enable learning by addressing barriers to learning. An enabling component for schools encompasses six areas of program activity. This unit, "Introduction to Classroom Focused Enabling as a Key Element in Addressing Barriers to Student Learning," is the…

This paper is a study of the organizational changes that were implemented at Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC) (Canada) over a 3-year period beginning in 1998. NSCC consists of 13 campuses enrolling 7,000 students in a range of postsecondary certificate and diploma programs, as well as about 500 students in adult learning programs. The…

Several years after the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), there are persistently low-performing schools in every state that face increasingly strong consequences for failing to improve student achievement sufficiently. In particular, schools that fail to make adequate yearly progress (AYP) for five consecutive years must…

Trust has been found to be an important component of school effectiveness, yet remains understudied especially in terms of school-central office relations. Using mixed methods in a case-study design, this research illustrates how the lack of trust, which often remains undiscussed in school reform, was surfaced and then began to be addressed by a…

Educators, concerned with disturbing trends in school failure, are arguing for more learner-centered models of schooling. Such a reform effort requires set principles that emphasize the active and reflective nature of learning and learners; 14 such principles are reported here. The immediate goal of this report is to provide a framework that can…

Over the past decade, the United Kingdom's central government education-reform program has created new leadership and management tasks. Key questions have arisen about how leaders will work to achieve the core purpose of their schools. This paper is based on a review of 15 major research studies that examined the impact of recent educational…

There is ample evidence that the success or failure of school reform lies not only in the soundness and appropriateness of the reform model chosen, but primarily in its perception, acceptance, and endorsement by teachers. This essay expresses the concept of power as it applies to school reform that focuses on teacher empowerment and…

A history of education in the state of Wyoming, along with a description of recent legislative initiatives, are presented in this paper. It opens with statewide reorganizations begun in the 1960s that unified school districts and equalized property valuation. A decade later a court order ruled the system inequitable and new laws provided for a…

Although models of successful school innovations exist, some reformers are giving up on the public schools. To address this problem, some suggestions for educators who want usable concepts to reform education are presented. The book is intended for the busy professionals devoted to education-teachers, teachers, administrators, curriculum…

Unlike many proposed educational reforms in the United States, charter schools enjoy support from policymakers across the political spectrum, making such schools a major focus of public school reform among educators and legislators. The origin of charter schools and how these schools are affecting education is the subject of this background paper.…

In 1989, the Nevada Legislature enacted the Class-Size Reduction (CSR) Act. The measure was designed to reduce the pupil-teacher ratio in the public schools, particularly in the earliest grades. The program was scheduled to proceed in several phases. The first step reduced the student-teacher ratio in selected kindergartens and first grade classes…

This Digest examines the key issues surrounding the implementation of schoolwide reform. It discusses how whole-school reform results can be dramatic but that schools must take special care with implementing the reforms. It examines the importance of outside assistance in reform efforts and reports that design teams are typically used by schools…