This report documents a consultation held by BellSouth Foundation that examined new routes to the teaching profession, and the changing and emerging philanthropic role in stimulating potential teachers to embark upon nontraditional paths to the profession. Participants included state education officials, foundation officers, public school teachers…

Examining the question, "Why are children not mastering what they ought to be learning in school?," this book merges cognitive science with educational agenda to show how incompatible children's minds and natural patterns of learning are to current educational materials, practices, and institutions, making a case for restructuring the…

In Louisville (Kentucky), the design and effort that foster educational changes are yielding rewards in three of the district's middle schools, participants in the High Project. The High Project, which began in 1989 with the support of the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, attempts to provide high expectations, high content, and high support for…

This book examines 1980s educational reforms and their consequences for the 1990s, focusing on the Australian Labor Party government's policy response to conditions of economic scarcity. The first section addresses the broader economic, social, political, and ideological context of educational reform under Australian Labor governments, compared to…

This paper uses the integration of the disciplines of counseling psychology and teacher education in their work in Professional Development Schools (PDS) as a model to generate recommendations for restructuring schools, colleges, and departments of education (SCDE). Because the involvement of counseling psychologists in PDS has created a win/win…

Current school restructuring experiments are likely to result in more balanced local education systems characterized by decentralized and centralized control. The potential leadership contributions of school district superintendents in a balanced system are described in this exploratory study, which is based on agency theory, a politics-oriented…

Three competing models for public school improvement are described as points of reference. The technical transfer model of school reform focuses on how to better transfer knowledge already in the possession of academics. Placing the locus of authority in the classroom is the main issue of the professionalization model for school improvement. The…

After reviewing definitions of school climate with emphasis on the four dimensions of school climate described by Tagiuri (1968), this document examines factors within Tagiuri's school culture and social system dimensions as manifested in the climate of average elementary and secondary schools and as they affect low achievers. Variables examined…

To determine the extent of changes being implemented in the middle grades in Wisconsin school districts, 532 surveys were mailed to Wisconsin middle level schools that include grades 7 and 8; the return rate was 81 percent. After reviewing the development and content of the survey, this document relates survey findings to the eight principles of…

Michigan's response to the call for educational improvement is described. Included are a discussion of the historical background; a review of the state's response to reform demands; an explanation of pending and enacted proposals; a summary of reform activities across the country; and an analysis of the effectiveness of the reform efforts. A…

The effects of a statewide testing policy on school district organizational structure are described in this report. A year-long ethnographic case study identified the following dysfunctional results of school reform based on external regulation: ambivalent local educator attitudes; the promotion of a professional teaching dilemma; negative…

A review of the literature on school reform and successful restructuring efforts, with a focus on the decentralization of the Chicago public school system, is the purpose of this paper. Under new legislation, the Chicago Board of Education will be disbanded to encourage citizen control of schools, and will be replaced by a system of individual…

This report contains the results of a telephone survey of 602 likely Arizona voters on various measures to enhance school choice in Arizona. This research was conducted by Arizona Opinion of Tucson for The Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation of Indianapolis. All fieldwork was conducted on March 23-26, and 28-29, 2005 by DataCall Inc. of…

To change American high schools, new collective imagination is needed. In an age where the word "teenager" or "adolescent" often inspires fear or frustration, leaders must overhaul the public's attitude about their high school students. In a time when many teachers believe their efforts cannot overcome poverty and other barriers to learning…

This paper describes and analyzes the Donors' Education Collaborative's (DEC) initiative to create sustainable systemic reform of New York City public education through projects that combined policy change strategies with efforts to develop permanent, broad-based constituencies advocating for and monitoring such reform. Based largely on field…