In its enabling legislation, the Alaska Joint Committee on School Performance was instructed to identify and recommend those subjects for priority legislative attention that might lead to improved school performance. The Committee's study found that inadequate school performance can be attributed to the following needs: (1) stricter school…

A discussion with 10 nationally recognized education reformers is summarized in this report. A goal of the discussion was to find common ways to fundamentally alter the American educational structure. Participants' statements are organized around six central themes, which form a paradigm for effective school restructuring. Sections address each of…

The impact of school-based management (SBM) on student performance is examined in this digest. The first part describes school-based management and its potential for improving student performance. A review of research concludes that, overall, school-based management has not contributed to consistent or stable improvements in student performance.…

Information on student achievement and personnel data is contained in this annual report of Columbus, Ohio, Public Schools for 1989-90. Section 1 offers a report on districtwide student achievement data. Eleven tables present mathematics, language, and reading scores and compare them to national averages. The second section presents three tables…

An overview of Iowa public schools for the school year 1990-91 is provided in this report. Findings are based on school-site visitations made by the state "ambassador for education." Following an introduction, section 1 describes successes of the state public school system, some of which include changing classroom practices, increasing…

Accountability has always been a basic concept in public education, although ideas about how to accomplish it have changed over the years. Problems in urban schools have given rise to the hope that carefully created systems of accountability might spur school improvement and school restructuring. Devising a system of genuine accountability in a…

Brief summaries of activities and tentative findings of six projects conducted by the National Center on Effective Secondary Schools are provided in this report. Project titles are as follows: Clearinghouse on Academic Achievement; Noninstructional Influences on Adolescent Engagement and Achievement; The Stratification of Learning Opportunities in…

The Dallas Independent School District presents longitudinal trends in achievement test scores of students tested in each of its subdistricts from 1976 to 1982. Forms 5, 7, and 8 of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills were administered. What the quasi-longitudinal and cohort-longitudinal test scores together affirm is that median scores have…

Although arguments abound concerning school administrators' roles, there is common agreement that principals experience difficulties in prioritizing the numerous demands on their time. In addition to crisis management skills, outstanding administrators exhibit five characteristics identified in an earlier paper. The present paper focuses on…

This report summarizes a state senate committee's assessment of school performance in Alaska and its conclusions and recommendations to the legislature. Chapter 1 describes Alaska's school districts, school enrollment, and educational expenditures. Chapter 2 discusses school reform in America in 1983-87, Alaska's comparative lack of reform…

The 1988 report by the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) entitled "Goals for Education: Challenge 2000" reflects concerns of government and educational leaders in the 15 states of the SREB area (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee,…

A qualitative evaluation related to the creation of a Regional High School of Excellence (RHSE) in upstate New York is described. The focus is on a summer pilot study of the RHSE conducted while the continuation of the project was jeopardized by proposed budget cuts. The stages of development, problems involved in passing the proposal through the…

The middle school provides a planned transition from childhood to young adulthood: it moves a student from the protective nurture of elementary school to the more depersonalized high school setting gradually, sensitively, and by design. Composed of the ideas from middle school education that each of the educators who choose this wonderful level of…

This publication, designed to help schools develop successful middle school programs and establish long-range goals for educating early adolescents, is divided into two parts. Part I examines the conceptual development of the effective middle school. It begins with a review of recent effective schools research and goes on to list and define 11…

Recent research has indicated that a learning setting's "psychological environment" can make a difference in student achievement and motivation. This has been found to be true in the case of smaller learning settings, such as the classroom. Recently, research on school culture has suggested that schools do indeed differ in the kind of…