This report examines West Virginia's education-reform efforts. It focuses on the relationship between a school's level of inclusion and the participatory characteristics of the faculty senate's site-based management. Based on four case studies, the report asks whether the fundamental principles implied by West Virginia's effort to shift to…

Based on the proceedings of a national conference titled "Implementation of the Title I Program: Implications for Improving Schools' Capacity for Achieving Success," this publication is intended to bring critical attention to the issues that will improve the learning of economically disadvantaged students in urban and rural schools.…

This book offers a conceptual framework and a set of processes for clarifying institutional purpose and setting academic priorities that builds on the author's experience as a university president, and engages the academic community in choosing among competing demands for financial and physical resources. Chapter 1 makes the case for academic…

Chapter 1, "Step 1: The Change Process," focuses on the change process and describes why and how schools engage in program restructuring and resource allocation. Chapter 2, "Step 2: Defining a New Educational Strategy," discusses decisions that must be made about the regular education program and how the various schools adopted, adapted or created…

This work provides school change leaders with tools, techniques, tips, examples, illustrations, and stories about promoting school change. Tools provided include histograms, surveys, run charts, weighted voting, force-field analysis, decision matrices, and many others. Chapter 1, "Introduction," applies a matrix for asking questions…

The present system of education in the United States is wasteful of human and monetary resources and is organized to deny learning opportunities to most students. Education is the biggest business in the United States, and it is the most important business because it molds the character and ability of current and future citizens. Schools should be…

Several themes are prevalent in the literature on college administration. Motivating staff, planning, conflict management, ethics, power and influence, communication, strategy and decision making, vision, and financial issues are consistently discussed. However, common administrative processes such as planning, morale, and administrative climate…

The literature on college faculty in 1996 has increased; however, two themes described in the practice literature--identifying and rewarding exemplary teaching and experimental pedagogies--are only minimally represented in the research literature. The Carnegie Foundation, the American Association for Higher Education, and the Council for the…

This article analyzes the effects of senior secondary-education reform in The Netherlands and the effects that these changes have exerted on teachers. It focuses on the way that changes, such as profiles, new exam programs, and alterations in "study house," interacted with and influenced teachers' tasks. The paper provides an overview of…

Motivated by the increasing prevalence of shared decision making and distributed leadership in restructured schools, six teams of Canadian secondary teachers were interviewed to explore their collective learning and the conditions influencing it. Qualitative and quantitative evidence identified numerous conditions to explain across-team learning…

Addresses the discord between school-reform efforts and many jurisdictions' accountability requirements. The paper explores the elements of school accountability systems that aid and impede innovative practice. Information comes from principals at 20 reforming schools who spoke about the impact of accountability tests on school reform. (SM)

In the United States, large-scale assessment is beginning to be used to promote educational system accountability and improvement. Widespread dissatisfaction with student outcomes and public schooling is fueling the search for alternative assessments as a part of educational reform. (SLD)

Summarizes the legal status, implementation status, and controversies concerning charter schools, contracts between private educational organizations and public schools, and publicly funded vouchers. Few empirical data are available to make sound judgments regarding the efficacy of any of these reforms, and all face formidable challenges in…

Describes three networks of British schools that are successfully banding together to assist one another with restructuring, school-based management, curriculum changes, staff development, and record keeping. Networks varied in size and scope, but all three were committed to dialog, cooperation, and solidarity in the interest of improving…

The implementation of a shared decision making (SDM) project in a large public secondary school was studied for three years. Factors that enhanced the SDM process were the confidence stakeholders had in themselves, resource availability, creation of democratic rules and procedures, early and concrete accomplishments, and the principal's support.…