The paper satirically describes three public school environments that promoted teacher collaboration. It examines the effect of teacher collaboration in the workplace and investigates the importance of two issues (time and authority) in shaping the extent to which collaboration can succeed. (SM)

Describes a partnership between the School District of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education. The Taking Stock/Making Change collaborative action research project supported schools as they moved toward school-based management and shared decision making. Though participating schools had some problems,…

Defines inclusion and the importance of inclusive education. Suggests that reciprocity built on self-empowerment, mutual need, ethics, and rationality builds partnerships for inclusion. Illustrates creating reciprocal partnerships by describing one effort to build a developmentally appropriate classroom. Describes a seven-step exchange model for…

Examines collaborative decision making in middle schools and methods to facilitate this underused strategy. Examines research on collaboration in the areas of school environment, classroom instruction, student learning, and decision making in schools. Factors of successful environments are examined including principal commitment, trust, focus on…

Describes a model class for instructing general and special educators in best practices in inclusive education. The class emphasized cooperative learning and decision making, highly structured problem solving activities, and use of in vivo case studies involving children with disabilities in local schools. These components were designed to model…

Describes the policy of shared governance with universities, in which faculty and administration participate in institutional decision making, and discusses the need for librarian participation in this process. Strategies to encourage librarian participation are outlined, including delineation of appropriate service activities and the provision of…

Describes, from the points of view of a principal and a 2nd-grade teacher, the process of creating an integrated unit on Alaska and Hawaii that began in an integrated learning workshop taught by the district administrators as part of the transformation of literacy practices in a small K-8 school district. (SR)

Overviews the role of school councils in each of the 12 Canadian provinces as part of a trend toward site-based management that empowers local communities with decision making and encourages significant input from those responsible for implementing decisions. Suggests that school councils allow parents decision-making power in the policy areas of…

Examines the potential for site-based management and shared decision making to impact the curriculum, particularly in science and mathematics teaching and learning. Information comes from studies in two school districts that had experimented with both strategies over the years. In both districts, the strategies significantly impacted curriculum…

Examines reactions of three types of stakeholder groups (administrators/policymakers, early interventionists/teachers, and parents) to the National Center on Educational Outcomes' early childhood outcomes models. Group members represented either a general early childhood perspective or an early childhood special education perspective. Presents…

Addresses one way in which spending less on public schools might actually improve school performance. The article focuses on bringing together those who have the greatest stake in school performance (the parents and the community) as planners and caretakers of their children's education. Such collaboration is viewed as strengthening understanding…

Two university educators use reflective dialogue to discuss processes they went through in understanding the political nature and assumptions of their own pedagogical practices as they searched for methods which would promote teacher empowerment and actively involve students in shaping course curriculum for a language arts class they team taught.…

Explores the idea of school-community councils as a way of establishing a social compact between schools and the community. Specific suggestions are given for establishing councils and keeping them functioning smoothly. Literature and community resources that can help are suggested and listed. (SLD)

This article explores the future of special education within four contexts: service delivery systems, personnel qualifications, emerging technologies, and policy developments. The paper argues for participation by all educators in active efforts to promote "best" policies and practices for the education of all children with special needs.…

Action research, in which classroom teachers engage in systematic inquiry to develop new alternatives for approaching problematic classroom situations, is presented as a dimension of collaboration that has the potential to reduce teachers' resistance to changes in teaching practice as they work to accommodate diverse classroom populations.…