The environment most characterizing today's public schools is continuous change, spurred by increased demands for performance and accountability. However, discontinuous change, in which organizations must question basic operating assumptions, is imminent. Continuous learning must be built into an organizations' fabric and it needs acceptable…

In learner-centered classrooms, teachers and students together construct, evaluate, and revise the ways they will go about meeting curriculum goals. This type of planning differs drastically from the Tyler Rationale, a technocratic planning framework that has guided the production model of schooling for nearly 50 years. Suggestions are offered for…

Californians have identified the health of public education as top priority. The legislature's search for accountability (focused on student assessment) has not been based on a cohesive school-improvement model. Legislators must work with educators to reexamine the entire education system. Educators must push for rational policy. (MLH)

Governor Jeb Bush and a Republican-dominated legislature have legislated a sweeping revision of the Florida education code that could qualify 150,000 of the state's 2.3 million public-school students for vouchers. A convenient diversion from true school reform, Bush's Opportunity Scholarship Program will be judged unconstitutional. (MLH)

Documents and explores three facts about the role of private schools and considers the implications of various approaches to the issue of accountability of private schools for the use of public funds. Describes difficulties posed by the probable regulation of private schools receiving public funds. (SLD)

Examines changes in the 1994 reauthorization of Title I that shift flexibility and accountability to local schools and explores implications of these changes for the 1999 reauthorization. Congress will need to determine whether the structure of the Improving America's Schools Act is adequate to bring about educational improvement for all students.…

Discusses three emerging trends on the affect of information technology on institutional research (IR), examining the following: information technology as a catalyst for change; pressures of access and accountability and challenges of open access to information, and the new informational professional. Offers a vision of technology's…

Some districts consider traditional teacher evaluation systems ineffective. Mentor teachers in Columbus, Ohio, pinpoint colleagues' weaknesses, sometimes recommending their dismissal. In Rochester, New York, parents rate their children's teachers. In Anchorage, Alaska, both students and parents are involved in evaluating teachers. The nation's…

Ties the emergence of turbo-capitalism to concerns about governments' legitimacy and the wholesale auditing of public institutions. Criticizes hastily contrived auditing procedures for their irrelevance, narrowly focused financial criteria, and a blame-oriented view of accountability. Traditional policy values are being eclipsed by consumer…

Explains how South Carolina has linked service learning to teacher education, strategic planning in schools, and educational accountability. Planners should establish a policy council, align service-learning initiatives with policy goals and programs, state academic standards, and teacher education programs; and create a network of trained…

This study indicates dramatic increases in the number of states using data from students with disabilities on school participation, exit, and achievement in their accountability systems and in the number of states with guidelines on the use of assessment accommodations. States seem to have changed little in knowledge about student participation…

Describes and contrasts different methods of estimating costs of standardized testing. Using a cost-accounting approach, compares gross and marginal costs and considers testing objects (test materials and services, personnel and student time, and administrative/building overhead). Social marginal costs of replacing existing tests with a national…

Board members and superintendents should know their state's laws regarding fund balances. Some states prohibit accumulation of fund balances and return unspent district revenues to state coffers. Most allow a limited fund balance to accumulate. Districts that overaccumulate are undermining state efforts to create educational equity. Tips are…

Sacramento schools achieved a turnaround in three years, after a new board reassigned inept administrators and devised a High Standards, Great Results Program comprised of the Puzzle (core achievement beliefs, community/parent support, and participative management) and Vital Signs (goals for readiness, attendance, literacy, and graduation rates).…

Presents evidence from the British Universities Council for the Education of Teachers to the House Commons Select Committee on Education regarding the current Office for Standards in Education inspection process for preservice teacher education, presenting arguments regarding cost, timing, and frequency of inspections and biases within and effects…