This book is part of a series of case studies that demonstrate better ways to educate Ohio's students. The case study is part of the Transforming Learning Communities (TLC) Project, designed to support significant school-reform efforts among Ohio's elementary, middle, and high schools. The text describes the 12 Ohio schools that were selected for…

Although school restructuring often calls for modifying the roles and responsibilities of teachers, students, and administrators, most restructuring efforts involve educators, not students. A team of university researchers trained high school sophomores as documenters of the school restructuring process. These documenters helped develop the…

Describes the efforts of a team of university-based counselor educators, alongside teams of school-based counselors, to restructure public education. Explores the roots of the collaboration and provides examples of collaboration projects that focus on trend analysis, sexual harassment, needs assessment and interventions, and international…

"Measuring Up" describes the current standards-based educational reform movement for a general audience and professionals who have not been involved in reform. The simplified perspective does not do justice to the complexity of reform issues in some contexts, but the case studies illustrating reform efforts are particularly useful. (SLD)

Learning environments and assessments must be designed to include homeless children in their reform efforts. Although homelessness is not a problem educators can solve, they must be sure that they do not contribute to its problems through neglect of disadvantaged children. (SLD)

Australians were reluctant to become involved in the school-effectiveness approach because of concerns about standardized testing procedures. Driven by economic considerations, some large-scale effectiveness research projects have been commissioned by Commonwealth and state governments. Recent reports show evidence of close links between school…

Traces evolution of the charter school movement from the author's initial proposals in the early 1970s to today's unprecedented opportunity for educators and citizens to revitalize their schools and vastly improve educational quality. Chartering all schools would truly decentralize schools and strengthen school-based management. (MLH)

Identifies factors distinguishing fast-starter from slow-starter schools during the first year of the Memphis Restructuring Initiative, which follows a "cell-division" implementation model. Startup is enhanced by strong administrative leadership; a restructuring model matching schools' current beliefs; curricula aligned with state…

School governance has recently dominated Canadian provinces' political agendas. Every province has reduced the number of school boards and centralized decision making. This article summarizes school board and funding status in each province and territory. Alberta, British Columbia, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Quebec have…

Presents six strategies by which student affairs professionals can develop management credibility and create understanding and direct support for the goals, functions, and operating approaches of their work. Emphasizes strategies for improving management within student affairs divisions to produce a better environment for working, budgeting, and…

High-performing schools, it is noted, share an organizational culture in which administrators, staff, and students agree on a common purpose for educational outcomes and undertake cooperative team efforts to reach these goals. A Virginia high school transformed its culture by providing comprehensive professional development and teacher-leadership…

A re-engineering of the educational system is proposed that focuses on mastery and more substantial learning activities and eliminates the constraints to learning that arise from the current insistence on grouping children by age. It is argued that eliminating age-based grouping has advantages that outweigh social disadvantage. (SLD)

Details the undergraduate curriculum revision undertaken by Guilford College, North Carolina, in 1996. Reports that the college's goals included development of strong courses that expressed concretely both the college's core identity, and, in the case of general education, the particular requirements the courses were to satisfy. Adds that the…

Suggests that "critical spirituality," an amalgamation of critical theory and African American prophetic spirituality, can enhance the discourse of transformative educational leadership that engages the existence of race, class, and gender inequalities present in schools as an agenda for institutional change. (Contains 19 references.)…

John Chubb and Terry Moe believe that the failure of schools to educate children is attributable to their institutional nature. During the past 25 years, the American public school system has been expected to resolve every social inequity. Bureaucracy has had a stifling effect on education, but its removal through parental choice will also remove…