In the first part of this paper, conceptions of trainee teachers are defined, together with their importance for the process of teacher education. Many studies concerning teacher conceptions and models of teacher development show that the conceptions of instruction, knowledge, and teacher and learner roles are a key part of the teacher's…

A number of authors have observed a pronounced discrepancy between the problem-solving and action-oriented goals associated with the contemporary philosophy of environmental education and an emphasis on the acquisition of environmental knowledge and awareness in school programs. Content analyses have revealed that curriculum materials commonly…

Parent participation has been one of the key principles of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA) since it was first authorized in 1975 as the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA) and has continued through the most recent reauthorization in 2004. Parents of children with disabilities have decision making…

President Bush's education act--No Child Left Behind (NCLB)--promises to close the achievement gap created by race, social class, disabilities, and English proficiency. Some scholars have argued that students achieve at higher rates when their teachers are culturally sensitive, utilize culturally relevant pedagogy, and can create a genuinely…

Parent involvement has increasingly been mandated as a key component of school reform, and school-community relations courses (as well as standards for administrators) call for collaborating with diverse families and communities. Yet the role of school leaders in engaging parents is underdeveloped in the literature and in preparation programs. How…

This study compares achievement levels for high ability students attending charter schools and students in traditional public schools in Georgia. Researchers examined student achievement (as assessed by the state's Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests) using three comparison groups: students in the closest traditional schools with similar grade…

This study examines patterns of literacy instruction in schools adopting three of America's most widely disseminated comprehensive school reform (CSR) programs (the Accelerated Schools Project, America's Choice, and Success for All). Contrary to the view that educational innovations seldom affect teaching practices, the study found large…

Community organizing for school reform is a growing national phenomenon, as young people, parents, neighborhood residents, and faith-based institutions struggle to improve the quality and equity of public schooling, particularly in urban school districts. Now a decade old, community organizing projects are influencing local public schools in…

Yes We Can: Improving Urban Schools through Innovative Educational Reform is a empirically-based book on urban education reform to not only proclaim that hope is alive for urban schools, but to also produce a body of literature that examines current practices and then offer practical implications for all involved in this arduous task. This book is…

With some notable exceptions, the school critics in the first and second "waves" of restructuring have largely neglected problems of resistance in implementation of reform. The primary task of managing change is not technical, but motivational. Building commitment to innovation among those who must implement it requires a focus on readiness.…

The Mid-continent Regional Educational Laboratory (McREL), with funding from the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, undertook a project to address needs for school reform support that were identified as common among states in its region. In order to assist in a strategy for leveraging limited resources, McREL proposed to identify…

Since 1988, considerable state and school/district energies have been devoted to implementing Re:Learning in Pennsylvania. This paper describes the experiences of Cycle I project directors who implemented Re:Learning in late 1988 or early 1989. Re:Learning is a national effort to redesign the total school system, based on Theodore Sizer's (1984)…

Nested in a complex environment of expectations, regulations, professional standards, and historical traditions, schools are the object of many influences. The main question of this paper is: To what extent and under what conditions do external agents help schools develop intellectual quality and strong professional communities? The paper examines…

In 1994 the Ohio State Legislature established Venture Capital to support school restructuring. The Venture Capital school initiative is a concept borrowed from the business community in which the corporate entity provides risk capital to parts of the organization to stimulate creative ideas and to provide opportunities for local entities to try…

Considerable research supports the notion that individuals' level of cognitive complexity influences their behavior. This paper presents findings of a study that explored the relationship between principals' supervisory beliefs and the implementation of integrated-curriculum approaches. The first phase of the study surveyed a total of 400…