Examines the link between educational leadership in schools and students' performance. Educational leadership is a determining factor in student success. A leader must define and communicate the school's mission; plan, organize, supervise, and evaluate curriculum and teaching; foster a positive climate for learning, with clear student…

Examines Duxberry Park Arts IMPACT (Interdisciplinary Model Program in the Arts for Children and Teachers) Alternative School (Columbus, Ohio) that includes the arts in all aspects of the traditional curriculum. Discusses the IMPACT model, Duxberry's interdisciplinary approach, the factors that contribute to the school's success, and the…

Examines public debate over private education in the context of the Hollywood dramatic feature film. Analyses four recent films that all portray private schools negatively. Film representation of public schools is more optimistic. Asserts that the films ignore or misrepresent three strengths of private education: effective leadership, small school…

Frequency of prosocial and antisocial student behaviors was rated by 1,503 students and 92 teachers in 4 urban middle schools ranked by achievement. The highest achieving school combined academics with a culture of caring, reflected in higher prosocial and lower antisocial behavior rates. Lower achieving schools had higher antisocial behavior…

Asserts that Catholic schools throughout America continue to make remarkable contributions to our nation's intellectual and moral growth. Highlights the impressive results of Catholic schools in teaching, student learning, graduation rates and retention, moral development, and the alleviation of resources for public schools. Presents the text of a…

Argues that the use of Total Quality Management, School Development Planning and Office for Standards in Education Inspections intensifies teachers' work and encourages schools and teachers to "fabricate" themselves for the purposes of evaluation. Uses data from a secondary school to illustrate these points. (DSK)

Argues that talk is a critical variable in work with struggling readers, contributing to their problem solving and engagement in reading tasks. Speculates about factors that contribute to children's failure: child and family factors, constraints within which teachers and schools operate, and the adversarial nature of the discourse surrounding…

Summarizes results of a longitudinal study fitting multilevel models to three waves of data on literacy progress for three cohorts of Australian elementary students. Provides estimates of prior achievement and social background influences on student progress and examines effects of grouping practices and other classroom variables. Attentiveness…

Explores what was learned during the "Schools Speaking to Stakeholders" project about building the quality school in order to contribute to the dialogue about reform in Quebec schools. Discusses the views from the literature and of practitioners who participated in the project and the framework used for measuring school quality. (CMK)

Summarizes a study probing the relationship among leadership, effective planning, and resource management in four British secondary schools, highlighting environmental and school culture influences. Headteachers work along a continuum balanced between systems organization and an integrative culture. Schools with rational planning approaches are…

Considers interrelationships among school climate, teacher empowerment, and school effectiveness, based on measures of mathematics and reading achievement in 86 New Jersey middle schools. Results show that teacher empowerment is pivotal to school effectiveness. A theoretical model explains linkages between organizational characteristics and…

Examines the variability of Israeli schools' emergency preparedness and response to the Gulf War and the association of school culture with school effectiveness during this emergency. Policy guidelines should include recommendations for diagnosing and identifying dimensions of school culture (including religious beliefs and school ideology) that…

Highlights significance of adult literacy programs in Botswana and Zimbabwe. Concludes that the traditional approach to adult literacy is dominant in both countries, despite differences in national contexts and despite the fact that this traditional approach is largely ineffective. (Contains 51 references.) (NB)

Reports on a revisit to the Frank Lloyd Wright Middle School, which implemented strategies to deal with disciplinary problems. The school continues to progress towards creating the type of reclaiming environment necessary to ensure the needs of all students. Strategies used include alternatives to zero tolerance policy; smaller teams of students;…

A study examined parent and caregiver perceptions of educational opportunities for 17 students with severe disabilities in an inclusive high school and 27 students with severe disabilities in a high school that focused on community-based programs. Results indicate that interview participants supported inclusive schools and believed children were…