This paper reports on empirical research carried out during a two-year period in which the British government introduced a new framework for the reorganization of schools. The research assessed the views of the governors and managers of grant-maintained (GM) schools with regard to their interpretations about the future governance of their schools.…

Following substantial changes throughout the Australian education system, primary schools are no longer in the protected position of having a regulated flow of clients, a predetermined curriculum, and marginal levels of staff development. This book reviews the impact of this change on Australian primary schools, the people who are involved with…

This guide is designed to help districts and schools, participating in the federally sponsored Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration Program, meet the evaluation requirements of the program as well as their own needs for useful evaluation information. Much of the information is applicable to any local jurisdiction engaged in school reform that…

This book is part of a series of case studies that demonstrate better ways to educate Ohio's students. The case study is part of the Transforming Learning Communities (TLC) Project, designed to support significant school-reform efforts among Ohio's elementary, middle, and high schools. The text presents a case study based on a middle school in…

This book is part of a series of case studies that demonstrate better ways to educate Ohio's students. The case study is part of the Transforming Learning Communities (TLC) Project, designed to support significant school-reform efforts among Ohio's elementary, middle, and high schools. This report describes the implementation of an innovative…

This book is part of a series of case studies that demonstrate better ways to educate Ohio's students. The case study is part of the Transforming Learning Communities (TLC) Project, designed to support significant school-reform efforts among Ohio's elementary, middle, and high schools. This report describes the implementation of an innovative…

This book presents two qualitative case studies conducted in two small-town New England high schools. It is dedicated to parents, educators, and community members who are committed to school improvement. The 10 chapters are divided into 3 parts. Part 1, "Understanding the Often Problematic Relationship between Parents and Schools,"…

The practice of reforming failing schools through school reconstitution is one of the latest challenges for school system directors of evaluation and accountability. Failing schools are typically identified in terms of student test performance. However, evaluating the impact of reconstitution in terms of test score gains may not be an appropriate…

This report covers two interrelated research projects, both dealing with questions of decentralization in the governance of education in South Africa. The first subproject examines the restructuring of educational governance at the level of provincial departments. Research at the institutional level forms part of the other subproject, which…

A survey of 242 administrators and staff examined 12 dimensions of school restructuring in 4 rural South Dakota school districts. Results indicate that restructuring efforts positively impacted learner outcomes, curriculum, instruction, and assessment. However, the dimension of time had not been reconfigured to better accommodate learner needs and…

Discusses declining commitment to education as a public good, addressing contemporary changes in economic organization, the correlative reorganization and design of institutions, and the discourse of privatization. Privatization emphasizes the traditional family and the importance of women's unpaid work for children and schools, despite most…

Using data from over 75 interviews, examines education reform in Detroit (Michigan) and explores the apparent collapse of a local education reform effort in spite of broad dissatisfaction with the current education system. Findings indicate that some long-term institutional impact of the reform remains. (SLD)

Describes trends in educational reform within the past 10 years, explaining the principles around which reforms are organized, and describing the approaches, methodologies, or theories that are deemed appropriate to carrying out these reforms. The leadership of Boricua College, New York (New York) in carrying out reform is explored. (SLD)

Inspired by teachers' concerns about the inadequacy of today's academic curriculum, this special section passes the buck up instead of down. Two articles explore what teachers might accomplish if no longer held captive by outmoded college admission requirements. Articles by education professors from Stanford University and the University of Oregon…

Explores cognitive mapping as a strategy for understanding school people's ideas about school restructuring, describing a study of mapping restructuring and illustrating it with two teachers' cognitive maps about how the process of restructuring should occur. The paper also discusses the implications of cognitive mapping for school restructuring…