The Marquis de Condorcet proposed a progressive restructuring of French schools and colleges that has modern parallels with lifelong learning. However, his plans were thwarted by the Jacobin party, which found Rousseau's ideas more conducive to its political aims. (SK)

Most daunting part of systemwide change is coping with complex mix of human needs, feelings, and emotions accompanying any change. By acknowledging the human dimensions of the planning enterprise and integrating them into the planning task, thoughtful leaders can bring about productive changes in their middle schools without damaging the most…

Outlines major recommendations and actions to date of five reform proposals: "America's Choice" (National Center on Education and the Economy); "Connecting School and Employment" (Council of Chief State School Officers); America 2000; the National Education Goals; and Job Training 2000. (SK)

Reviews recent events and reports on the development of a telecommunications infrastructure for education. Argues that educators must learn about the potential uses of technology and participate in the debate about policy. (SK)

The strategies comprising America 2000 are organized around four themes: creating better and more accountable schools for today's students, creating a new generation of schools for tomorrow's students, transforming United States into a nation of students, and making our communities places where learning will happen. Long-range impacts, issues, and…

Reviews research on the effectiveness of supportive leadership, teacher participation in decision making, and staff collaboration. Investigates conditions that promote or impede the implementation of these practices by using a multilevel statistical model. Finds significant variance between public and Catholic schools, as well as within-school…

Investigates indirect instructional leadership as demonstrated by a secondary high school principal. Uses data from a qualitative study of high school principals to present organizational factors that enhance the principal's ability to exert an indirect influence on instruction. Considers also the potential importance of indirect leadership…

Superintendents and key executives from 22 California districts were asked to interpret and evaluate 8 restructuring approaches. Viewpoints expressed offer contrasting assessments shaped by the issue's salience and explicitness, interest in performance improvement versus public confidence development, and concern for accountability versus…

Engaging the curriculum means creating conditions demanding that teachers be excited and inquisitive about learning. Restructured schools succeed by altering behaviors and beliefs, restoring professional pride, sharing decision-making responsibility, providing visionary leadership, developing clear institutional goals, valuing students, stressing…

Compares the school decentralization process and political background in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Miami. Finds that successful programs are characterized by local-level policymaking, strong alliances between district management and teachers, an atmosphere conducive to change and risk, and a willingness to allow schools independence in…

Considers three levels of school change: renewal, making more effective what is already done; reform, altering existing procedures to adapt to new circumstances; and restructuring, changing fundamental assumptions, practices, and relationships to improve student learning and profoundly affect educational practices. Summarizes alternative…

Four secondary teachers, long accustomed to working in isolation, joined forces to provide an interdisciplinary program with flexible scheduling and common planning periods. This article describes their school-within-a-school program, its acceptance by the Coalition of Essential Schools, and the program's benefits. A sidebar provides restructuring…

Transitional outcome-based education lies in the twilight zone between traditional subject matter curriculum structures and planning processes and the future-role priorities inherent in transformational OBE. Districts go through incorporation, integration, and redefinition stages in implementing transitional OBE. Transformational OBE's guiding…

Reviews past attempts to restructure U.S. education, effects of competency-based education, and the role of teacher certification. Considers the impact of federal legislation concerning certification. (SK)

Argues, in contrast to David Hargreaves, that libertarianism implies a mild presumption against school choice, and that notions of common good are significant to educational decision making only when deciding between sets of institutions that perform equally well at delivering their obligations. Links these issues to questions about school choice.…