How changes in teacher pay can contribute to systemic educational reform and school restructuring is discussed, focusing on knowledge- and skill-based pay, job enlargement, and collective incentives. These alternatives have the potential to improve teacher motivation and support other reforms. (SLD)

Results of a qualitative exploration of faculty response to the reconfiguring of organizational finances, structure, and mission illustrate the impact of reconfiguration on departmental and organizational culture at an institution of higher education. The change process and the dynamics of faculty interpretation, experience, and perspective of…

Three events drive the need for increased school funding: educational technology deficiencies, school restructuring projects, and declining resources. Downsizing will not work for schools. As district budgets tighten, principals must build funding programs to sustain a high school's academic and cocurricular needs. A three-pronged effort involving…

Although 1988 Chicago Reform Act mandates changes in decision-making structures to empower teachers, parents, and community members to make financial, hiring, and curriculum decisions, many teachers are opting out of change process. Interview data from 30 Chicago teachers describe principals as "powerhouses" or "benevolent…

Proposes reform in education from an "assembly line" to a "provider-client" approach. Swanton High School (Ohio), winner of GTE's Pioneering Partners program, which used Learning Management Systems to track student progress and testing, satellite courses, videodiscs, Hypercard, QuickTime video, and Internet connections, is…

Provides a satirical view of the extinction of school librarians. Highlights include educational technology development; changing professional environments; mainstreaming; certification; and the industrialization of education. (AEF)

Identifies the main problems of educational reform in postcommunist countries by using an interactive model of education and developmental dimensions of society. Suggests that the stalemate in the transformation of ownership and political modernization and ideological conservativism will impede the Europeanization of education in Eastern European…

Discusses issues for community college administrators related to Total Quality Management (TQM), transformational quality, and college leadership. Highlight's the author's application of TQM and college leadership literature. Describes initiatives developed at Illinois' Parkland College to provide better service to Parkland's community. (MAB)

Describes an assistant superintendent's experience in developing and implementing similar school reform plans in two high school settings. The less affluent but more successful school tied its restructuring plans to Coalition of Essential Schools principles. The key elements for success were energy, vision, and faculty and community commitment.…

The Goals 2000 Act creates a framework for establishing high academic and skill standards. Offers ideas and suggestions for creating a community or school strategy to reach the National Education Goals. Lists key questions that require answers and ways that central office staff members can provide assistance to the local school site. (MLF)

Describes a program in California that funded school restructuring efforts. Highlights include creating a learning community; the role of principals; authentic accountability; quality indicators, including examples of hard logic and fuzzy logic; The Protocol, a total quality management (TQM) feedback tool; and how collaboration and TQM helped…

A Georgia superintendent (and former teacher) angered board and community members by calling in federal authorities to help eliminate de facto segregation in two schools serving 1,200 students. At issue were a discriminatory track system and unintegrated cheerleading teams. Sidebars explain the U.S. Education Department's Office for Civil Rights…

Discusses educational reform, highlighting the role of external forces, school philosophy and goals, school governance and decision making, school organization for teaching and learning, and consequences of change. References to the American Indian concept of "shape shifting" reflects skepticism about the level of commitment of key…

In educational reform, the nation appears to be pursuing two distinct and possibly incompatible strategies for change. One approach is based on the philosophy of "a Nation at Risk" and has resulted in a standards-driven educational agenda. Critics of this model advocate a bottom-up, more learner-centered approach. (SLD)

Reviews focus groups as a way of determining community opinions and explains how to use them. Designing a focus group series, conducting the group, and reporting the results are described, and examples are given of focus groups in educational change. (SLD)