The drive for systemic reform in education reflects a widespread hunger in all sectors of society to make sense of the whole, as is shown in the increasing recognition of people in organizations of the interrelatedness of the organizations' parts. However, many attempts at systemic reform are hampered by the lack of a common view of what an…

Much of the school reform and restructuring literature has focused on the need to improve or totally restructure teaching practice in order to create schools that effectively prepare children for the future. Recent literature on learning in the workplace and teacher learning and change provide some insight into the reasons why many teacher change…

A study examined the effectiveness of a resistance-based prevention program to increase subjects' ability to comprehend and apply resistance skills. Subjects were 30 participants in kindergarten through third grade. Fifteen subjects received resistance-based prevention training from the We Help Ourselves (WHO) program. The remaining 15 subjects…

This document outlines the proposals for a regional information system strategy resulting from a project undertaken by the Caribbean Community Secretariat and the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean Sub-regional Headquarters for the Caribbean. The document covers: (1) the role of information in the development…

This paper presents findings of a study that examined the process of building staff commitment during the earliest phase of comprehensive school change, or "courtship" phase. Participant observation in a northwestern urban school district was conducted at three low-achieving elementary schools that implemented the accelerated schools model.…

This handbook is designed to help public school administrators to develop policies and procedures that allow for the appropriate educational placement of preschool children with disabilities in mainstreaming settings. Part I contains background information and materials on legal requirements related to mainstreaming, the efficacy of early…

Seven papers from the 1990 CAUSE conference's Track 1, Planning and Strategy, are presented. They discuss approaches to information technology strategies which are commensurate with an institution's mission and strategic directions. Papers and their authors are as follows: "Future Directions in Higher Education: A CIO's (Chief Information…

This report discusses the planning and implementation of the holistic librarian concept (i.e., the integration of public and technical services) at the McFarlin Library at the University of Tulsa (Oklahoma). The use of automation in the university libraries, which made the changes possible, and the total reorganization of the structure of work…

This annotated bibliography on nontraditional occupations for women is organized into 11 sections that list resources in the following areas: books and studies; curriculum materials; General Accounting Office reports and Congressional hearings; guides, manuals, and resources; journal articles and book chapters; newspaper and magazine articles;…

In collaborative schools, regular and special education teachers meet regularly to analyze and make decisions about instructional practices and services to meet the needs of all students. This paper explores the effectiveness of a school development model in helping small rural schools adopt three characteristics of collaborative schools: (1) a…

COPE (Client-Oriented, Provider-Efficient) methodology, a self-assessment tool that has been used in 35 countries around the world, was used to improve the quality of care in family planning clinics in Kenya. COPE involves a process that legitimately invests power with providers and clinic-level staff. It gives providers more control over their…

Integrative education is defined as education that promotes learning and teaching in nonfragmented ways that embrace notions of holism, complexity, and interconnection. Furthermore, integrative education embraces the links, rather than the divisions, between the academic disciplines (e.g., arts and sciences) and between various subjective and…

Early observations of 13 culturally and linguistically diverse elementary schools, each of which is implementing one of six internally-developed school restructuring designs, are reported here. The schools are all located in one demographically diverse county, and the restructuring process occurred over a 4-year period. The study examined a range…

This report presents information from the February 1997 Select Seminar on Excellence in Education. The Select Seminars have been held since 1985 as a form of professional development, offering a forum for educators to consider major issues and make written recommendations to improve the quality of education. Participants in the 1997 Seminar were…

A new national research consortium, the Center for the Study of Teaching and Policy (CTP), is designed to investigate the relation between excellent teaching and policymaking at the national, state, and local levels. Policy efforts to produce excellence in teaching must: (1) attract, recruit, and retain capable teachers; (2) develop teachers'…