True educational restructuring requires a vision of learning, examples of visionary school-level restructuring, and a coordinated plan at the local, state, and national levels for inviting and helping schools accept choice, responsibility, and accountability. One strategy calls for site-based flexibility and development of educational innovation…

Like most other reform endeavors, the current restructuring movement may fail. Advocates often oversimplify restructuring, overlooking serious underlying issues, such as the politics of organizational change, and ingrained U.S. schooling characteristics, including inclusiveness, deep structure, knowledge industry influences, growth of state power,…

Moving toward site-based management, Greece (New York) Central School District administrators and the teachers' organization established a representative steering committee to coordinate and facilitate the decentralization process and develop a master plan. Benefits include increased faculty understanding, improved school climate, and increased…

Montclair State College (MSC) and its clinical schools network have been selected as a pilot site working toward implementation of Goodlad's teacher education reform agenda. This article discusses the manner and degree to which the MSC program currently reflects some of the critical thinking-related issues which Goodlad raises. (IAH)

Five patterns for restructuring through community education are (1) community involvement in educational decision making; (2) family support and education; (3) curriculum enhancement through community resources; (4) educational opportunities for children and adults; and (5) collaboration with community organizations. (SK)

The principal of a partly restructured elementary school describes effective tactics for starting the process. These include teaching and demonstrating change, making change pay (by rewarding teachers for making risky changes), picking a focus or mission, and involving everybody. Although the process is not complete and some costs are unknown, the…

Leaders in professional education and technology were invited to envision the role of technology in restructuring schools and to suggest experiences designed to prepare educational administrators for technology leadership. Responses describe future schools, school leadership, and the involvement of technology in shaping teacher role, curriculum,…

Recently, the Petersburg (Virginia) Public Schools have moved away from a highly centralized organizational structure to a Total Quality Management system featuring shared decision making and school-based management practices. The district was guided by Deming's philosophy that all stakeholders should be involved in defining the level of products…

The traditional trustee-superintendent relationship is based on trustees' lack of direct access to knowledge and both parties' expectation that the paid expert (the superintendent) should do the work. This article calls for a drastically revised board-superintendent relationship and outlines new ways to recruit board members and move current…

During 1988 and 1989, a university education lecturer in New Zealand organized and directed a 2-year professional development program (the School Leaders Project) for 67 secondary school principals and assistants. Although the program's organization, content, and delivery initially facilitated participants' professional development, the…

Political and economic realities in changing South Africa brought about restructuring of the nation's Department of Education and Culture. Using semistructured interviews with principals, this study attempted to determine how principals in one state-aided school perceived changes regarding their roles and tasks, staff structure, and internal…

Discussion of restructuring educational systems focuses on strategies for implementing major change in large organizations, including public school systems. Highlights include what motivates change; the capacity to change; human resilience during change; roles in the change process; successful managers; the impact of organizational culture; and…

A consortium of four Wisconsin school districts has decided to stop tinkering with the educational system and apply W. Edward Deming's 14 management points to total system improvement. The rewritten precepts involve creating and adopting a fitting purpose, infusing quality into the educational "product," and working toward zero defects…

Despite serving growing numbers of at-risk students, Pasco (Washington) School District has been transformed through outcome-based education into a district widely recognized for quality. Pascoe's OBE process demanded a school vision and mission statement; intensive teacher retraining; implementation of mastery learning, reality therapy, and…

Traces the organizational history in Kentucky after the Department of Education was abolished by the Kentucky Educational Reform Act (KERA). Offers suggestions to other state legislators contemplating state department restructuring. Contends that "restructuring" turned out to be the same old process of bureaucratic adjustments practiced…