New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani's recent private-school voucher proposal has strained his close collaboration with Chancellor Rudolf F. Crew. Shackled by its immensity and complexity, the system has too many failing schools and students. Higher Regents standards, disappearing principal tenure, and lagging school repairs may further erode public…

Summarizes the development of a restructuring model of Poudre High School (Colorado) begun in 1989 with the creation of a three-tiered framework: (1) central variables such as teacher expectations, curriculum, and assessment; (2) enabling variables, including support services, governance technology, and cultural awareness; and (3) supporting…

Summarizes key themes described in the learning organization literature and discusses ways in which each theme illuminates how schools might be better organized to deliver services for students with disabilities. Addresses organizational learning, knowledge, authentic communication, vision, steward leadership, systems perspective, and…

This study examined actual implementation of inclusion as part of a district and university restructuring initiative. Participant observation and interviews did not find any movement of special education students to general education despite use of the term "inclusion." Two themes were seen to explain this failure to understand and implement…

Describes a program of research known as "Fostering Communities of Learners" that aims to improve the literacy skills and domain-area subject matter knowledge of inner-city students aged 6 to 12 years. The program builds on children's emergent strategic and metacognitive knowledge. (SLD)

The widely implemented "Success For All" program is designed to restructure elementary schools serving children at risk of failure. Primary goals are preventing remediation and empowering students. Principals must manage program resistance, create a supportive culture, demonstrate commitment to program structures, select appropriate…

Describes the early experience of Texas with charter schools, which have been promoted as a way to restructure urban education through schools that are smaller, less bureaucratized, and more attuned to student and community needs. Discusses barriers to charter-school success and prospects for urban-school reform if charter schools are not…

Focuses on changes in student achievement in Chicago (Illinois) public schools since the passage of the 1988 Chicago School Reform Act and notes corresponding changes in funding, staffing, and leadership. Uses data from a longitudinal study of 10 elementary and four high schools. (SLD)

Explores reorganization of secondary education in a small British town. Conceptualizes six headteachers and the education director as social players engaged in seven transactional game situations during reorganization, showing how political changes that transformed the public-sector education provision also created conditions conducive to…

Summarizes theories of intelligence leading to Paul F-Brandewein's theory of the three-ring conception of giftedness and how that theory led to the development of the Schoolwide Enrichment Model. Explains how the Schoolwide Enrichment Model can be customized based on local resources, student population, school leadership dynamics, and faculty…

Performance-driven high schools have organizational, management, and governance structures that communicate high expectations. Such schools create a results-oriented culture, strongly support staff development, build community services and "outside" supports for students, help parents support their children's academic progress, and…

Analyzed the Accelerated Schools Program (ASP) in two schools in New Orleans (Louisiana). ASP believes schools should pursue simultaneous, interactive changes in curricula, instruction, and organization for the changes to have lasting effects. Racial, social, and ideological conflicts must be resolved for change to take root in inner-city schools.…

The negative effects of grade retention should not become an argument for social promotion. Four complementary alternative strategies include enhancing professional development for teachers, employing redesigned school structures (like multiage grouping) that support more intensive learning, providing targeted supports and services when needed,…

Presents results of a school-restructuring case study involving a high school participating in the Coalition of Essential Schools and RE: Learning Project. Nine common coalition principles were implemented, primarily within the school-within-a-school program. Barriers included staff jealousy, political controversy, decreased staff development…

Focuses on how those outside the school can support school improvement. Maintains that the purposes of school improvement determine learning outcomes. Discussion of 10 strategies for supporting school improvement notes the importance of addressing the implicit assumptions that comprise school culture and matching change strategies to type of…