Presents a feminist analysis of how decentralized decision-making policies are reflected at the local level in four countries: Australia, Sweden, New Zealand, and Israel. These examples indicate that management practices tend to be more modernist than postmodernist, and often have highly inequitable effects for female teachers. Contains 63…

Durham (North Carolina) School of the Arts' transformation in 5 years from a run-down, segregated facility to a highly desirable magnet school is proof that a school accessible to the whole community can succeed. Students are chosen by lottery and are showing appreciable academic growth on state tests. (MLH)

Describes a 10-year effort to restructure an urban school system. Central to the process was the role of school principals, who were vested with responsible autonomy in the administration and leadership of their schools. Those who were considered most successful in the restructuring effort were interdependent with, rather than independent of,…

Offers a multiperspective description of what happened to elementary and secondary education in British Columbia in the wake of the 1988 Sullivan Royal Commission on Education Report. Requests separation of politics and educational reform. (VWC)

The seven chapters of this theme issue focus on efforts in four countries to understand and improve the experiences of students traditionally defined as having disabilities or special needs. The chapters include a discussion of the language of special education reform and accounts of inclusion-related issues in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and the…

A group of Edmonton (Alberta) principals developed 10 commandments for developing needed skills for the next millennium. Principals must be goal-directed, light others' way, have high expectations, foster empowerment, provide authentic educational experiences, be team members, value school community differences, encourage others' participation,…

Restructuring efforts, including curriculum integration, require that teachers exercise intellectual skills transcending craft wisdom and recipe exchanges. This article explores the tension between teamed middle-school teachers' technical interest in seeking recipes and their deliberationist interest in engaging in fruitful dialog. Teachers…

Many middle schools use teaming or other models to create smaller teaching and learning units. Too often, schools align these models with characteristics advocated in the literature, rather than focusing on collaborative work environments' effects on teachers' and students' lives. These structures' true value lies in the collaborative work…

This review includes recent research that manipulated features of cooperative learning as well as studies of the relationship between interaction in small groups and outcomes. The analysis examines the kinds of discourse that are productive for different types of learning and moves toward studies of task and interaction. (SLD)

This article describes Colorado's approach to implementation of least restrictive environment (LRE) policy, specifically focused on the recent reform initiative of inclusive education. It describes how state leadership and collaboration have resulted in increased integrated placements. Emerging policy initiatives and questions about the merger of…

This paper introduces this journal issue on the Network for Innovative Colleges of Education, which was originally created to allow five deans to meet periodically to support one another but which quickly grew to support other key faculty. The colleagues all contributed to restructuring each of the five colleges. (SM)

Examines the process undertaken by the authors, both learning center administrators, when faced with the campus-wide process of restructuring. Explains their systematic examination of services offered by the learning center, the data gathered, and the changes made. Presents a model of a learning center that effectively meets the needs of a rapidly…

In the current context of standards-based reform and heightened accountability for school performance, state education agencies (SEAs) have an important, but not yet well-articulated, role to play in local school improvement efforts. This article starts to articulate such a role by examining the variety of approaches and strategies used by 7 SEAs…

The author recently had the same conversation about local school reform with two superintendents--one from a large, urban district in the East and the other from a small district in the Midwest. Both superintendents were working with their respective boards to approve, design and fund reading initiatives consistent with the new federal guidelines.…

In the 1980s, a Republican president led a defense build-up in response to foreign crises, and his education secretary, chided the establishment on school reform. Legal experts debated the merits of affirmative action, while advocates questioned the growing reliance of students on loans instead of grants to finance a college education. Sound…