Focuses on changes in student achievement in Chicago (Illinois) public schools since the passage of the 1988 Chicago School Reform Act and notes corresponding changes in funding, staffing, and leadership. Uses data from a longitudinal study of 10 elementary and four high schools. (SLD)

Explores reorganization of secondary education in a small British town. Conceptualizes six headteachers and the education director as social players engaged in seven transactional game situations during reorganization, showing how political changes that transformed the public-sector education provision also created conditions conducive to…

Summarizes theories of intelligence leading to Paul F-Brandewein's theory of the three-ring conception of giftedness and how that theory led to the development of the Schoolwide Enrichment Model. Explains how the Schoolwide Enrichment Model can be customized based on local resources, student population, school leadership dynamics, and faculty…

Performance-driven high schools have organizational, management, and governance structures that communicate high expectations. Such schools create a results-oriented culture, strongly support staff development, build community services and "outside" supports for students, help parents support their children's academic progress, and…

Analyzed the Accelerated Schools Program (ASP) in two schools in New Orleans (Louisiana). ASP believes schools should pursue simultaneous, interactive changes in curricula, instruction, and organization for the changes to have lasting effects. Racial, social, and ideological conflicts must be resolved for change to take root in inner-city schools.…

The negative effects of grade retention should not become an argument for social promotion. Four complementary alternative strategies include enhancing professional development for teachers, employing redesigned school structures (like multiage grouping) that support more intensive learning, providing targeted supports and services when needed,…

Presents results of a school-restructuring case study involving a high school participating in the Coalition of Essential Schools and RE: Learning Project. Nine common coalition principles were implemented, primarily within the school-within-a-school program. Barriers included staff jealousy, political controversy, decreased staff development…

Focuses on how those outside the school can support school improvement. Maintains that the purposes of school improvement determine learning outcomes. Discussion of 10 strategies for supporting school improvement notes the importance of addressing the implicit assumptions that comprise school culture and matching change strategies to type of…

Educational reforms in Russia since 1990 have positive as well as negative aspects. Economic decline that followed the severing of ties among the former republics and regions of Russia itself place severe limitations on the pace and content of reform. The most important developments are the possibility of choice in education and independence of…

Argues that school leaders should act as teachers of their colleagues, assuming the tasks of a teacher in planning curriculum, designing learning activities, and developing consensus among their students/colleagues about what should be done to act on their learning. School renewal and restructuring offer illustrations of the "leader as…

Examines types of leadership, compared on the dimensions of the roles of formal school teachers, the roles of teachers and other school staff, and the value system of leadership. Critical leadership is suggested to be the most promising approach through combining the pursuit of democratic values with explicit examination of structural and cultural…

Describes the restructuring process at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, focusing on changes in the College of Education over four years. Grant monies allowed faculty members to attend programs and conferences, hire specialists, develop a planning document, implement a plan that included 11 new units, and elect unit leaders. (SM)

Examines the relationship between school restructuring on mathematics achievement across categories of school socioeconomic status. Raises questions about the suitability of defining restructuring in terms of any specific reform agenda. Indicates the need for caution regarding the broad implementation of such an agenda in disadvantaged schools.…

Describes a comprehensive school reform initiative in one Memphis, Tennessee district. The restructuring started when the district began collaborating with New American Schools. Data from interviews, focus groups, surveys, observations, and student achievement records revealed which reform designs demonstrated the most progress in team building,…

Explores the role of charter schools and explains why the charter movement is so promising for transforming U.S. education, particularly in urban areas. Addresses three common objections to charter schools and asserts that charter schools can serve the needs of at-risk and disabled students. (SLD)