Profiles a Milford, Connecticut, middle school's efforts to help Eric Kowalchick, a developmentally disabled adolescent, develop life skills and friendships, prepare for work, pursue school and community club memberships, and attend high school classes. The school's mainstreaming program is a success, thanks to an institutional mission understood…

Today, Americans rank education as one of their top concerns. This article describes the implications of two main directions for educational improvement: (1) reinvesting in public schools to provide all children with equal access to quality education; or (2) divesting from public schools through vouchers for private and parochial institutions.…

NASSP's 1996 report "Breaking Ranks" views principals as pivotal to restructuring high schools. Freeing principals from excessive management entanglements and hiring and training knowledgeable, trustworthy, and credible individuals will help achieve restructuring goals. Credibility characterizes those who are unquestionably honest, value…

Studies of the principalship have failed to keep pace with the changing contexts in which principals must act. Advocates an edited topical life-history approach to address this problem. Illustrates this claim, using a Western Australia study exploring why some principals are more successful than others at guiding school restructuring initiatives.…

Provides detailed examples of the components of Title I as recently revised and suggests alternative ways that the program's new flexibility can be used to enhance school reform. Revised Title I audit procedures are also designed to promote improved program performance and increased understanding of the law. (SLD)

This special issue provides diverse data sets on a school-improvement initiative in Memphis, Tennessee. The effort seems unusually promising because of top-down district support for eight separate site-based reform designs, planners' reliance on New American Schools and other familiar designs, long-term data-collection opportunities, accessible…

"Schoolyard Bullies" deals with the Sullivan Royal Commission on Education in British Columbia (Canada), the school reform it initiated, usually called "Year 2000," and what has happened in the province's schools since that reform effort was abandoned. New emphases in reform efforts in British Columbia stress vocationalism.…

Democratic schooling extends beyond governance structures into all areas of educational practice. What are appropriate practices for democratic schools? This question was addressed by a qualitative study of principals in schools striving to become more democratic. These principals expanded decision-making involvement and discourse, stressed…

Granby High School in Norfolk, Virginia, is a large comprehensive high school restructured into four smaller academies that allow students a more personal learning environment. Positive growth is shown in test scores, dropout rates, and the narrowing achievement gap between minority and majority students. (MLF)

Descriptive study a New Millennium High School in Florida, involving the restructuring of the instructional program of a low-performing school through the integration of academics with career education. (Contains 39 references.) (PKP)

The structures and symbols of the Chicago (Illinois) school reform movement were explored through a case study in one Chicago elementary school. Changes were built on a framework of organizational symbols and metaphors of the building as a home, the school as a family, and the principal as leader. (SLD)

When it became apparent that change was necessary to alter Hatboro Horsham High School's (Pennsylvania) downward trend in grades and SAT scores, the school adopted "intensive scheduling," which is built on the 85-minute, 5-period day. Intensive scheduling proved very successful, and the school's statistics have improved greatly. (KDP)

Interviews with parents of 11th graders enrolled in a required, untracked American studies course reveal that parents' perspectives are not easily understood. Principals should beware of survey data and superficial feedback, resist focusing only on outcomes, and conceive of parents as learners. Principals can transform traditional meetings with…

Presents a new perspective on how to integrate the arts back into education and how to make art education part of the school reform process. The perspective would teach only artistic insights that would best serve children at different times in their development, stressing the continuity between art and life. (SM)

Japanese students are outperforming American students for less cost per pupil. Though American education tries to solve the problems with additional spending and more complex regulation and administration, it is counterproductive, and little money reaches the students. The article discusses solutions to the problem, noting national, state, and…