Increasing teachers' senses of efficacy toward educating minority, poor, and low achieving students is an important element of school restructuring. Changing societal values toward individual differences and misconceptions about students' abilities to learn is essential. Teacher behaviors that are effective with low achievers are effective for all…

A number of recent approaches to instruction appear to improve the thinking skills and academic performance of low achievers. Lists six steps to successful reform and an additional six strategies focused on alienated low achievers. Provides information sources for programs described. (MLF)

Reports on the effect of external political pressure on the distribution of influence in school districts. Focuses specifically on the influence exercised by school-level administrators and teachers on school-level policy. Expounds on a theory of local variation across institutional organizations using the High School and Beyond study. (CFR)

Explores high school restructuring efforts under the Kentucky Education Reform Act. Issues of performance-based measures of learning and graduation requirements are discussed. Designing schools with the goal that all students succeed can overcome the friendly fire of cross-purposes in education. (SLD)

Teacher educators in Kentucky must prepare teachers who can meet the demands of the state's schools as articulated in the Kentucky Education Reform Act. Teacher educators themselves must demonstrate the kinds of practices that students are expected to learn and must recognize diversity and optimize the success of diverse populations. (SLD)

Examines the privatized management of the complete urban public school system of Chelsea (Massachusetts), the first example of school system privatization in the country. The role of Boston University and resistance of the Latino population are studied, and implications for educational reform and minority politics are examined. (SLD)

Using survey and interview data from 78 junior high and high school students in an alternative school, studies the ways school structures affect the experience of at-risk students. Seven dilemmas attributable to familiar school structures are examined, and implications for restructuring schools are discussed. (SLD)

This article examines American and Australian school principals' fundamental values regarding the purpose of schools. It also illustrates their views on school reform and the role of the principal in reform, and compares their visions of the purpose of schools--the ideal schools in the 21st century. Data reveal that the majority of American and…

This guide provides suggestions for planning and implementing inclusion programs to enhance education for all children. Recent laws supporting the rights of children with disabilities are considered, along with the confusion regarding how to meet the needs of all children in the schools. Variations in inclusion practices among states and districts…

This guide explains the philosophy of "learner-centered schools." The term holds a variety of meanings for educators, such as the use of learning centers for a theme, topic, or subject area, alternative assessments in which students are evaluated in innovative ways, or continuous progress models with integrated thematic instruction and…

This report discusses the emergence of a new geopolitical reality, that of countries in transition. Although the expression usually refers to former Communist countries, a closer analysis shows that transition is, in fact, a universal historical phenomenon. As used here, countries in transition must evidence the following factors: (1) the…

This publication introduces school personnel concerned with early intervention with potential school dropouts to a promising school-based interprofessional case management model that has been successfully field-tested in 25 very different elementary school communities of Idaho and Washington State over the past 7 years: C-STARS (Center for the…

This paper reviews 1993 trends and issues in urban education in five sections. Following an introduction, the first section describes the economic conditions of today's diverse urban public school students and the way that poverty differentially affects various ethnic and racial student groups. A second section analyzes key educational policies…

As part of an ongoing evaluation of the Chelsea Public School System-Boston University (BU) partnership in Massachusetts, a survey was done of 165 teachers to determine their reactions to this effort at school reform and their opinions concerning several matters related to education in Chelsea and the Chelsea-BU partnership. A year and a half…

In 1987, parents and teachers from diverse neighborhoods of a local school district in New York (New York) founded the Bronx New School, a small public elementary school of choice that was meant to be learner-centered, with high standards for all. The school was organized into heterogeneous, multi-age classes and structured to encourage…