Most of the cost of providing special education is borne by states and local education agencies. Examines changes in federal legislation affecting special education, increase in the target population, and future considerations in funding programs for handicapped children. (MLF)

The intellectual disciplines comprising the traditional curriculum are actually territorial spaces carved out by academic scholars for their own purpose. Although middle-level educators have been engaged in reform efforts for two decades, the interdisciplinary, integrated curriculum is still rare and a working definition of a middle school…

Restructuring requires that educational leaders have new frameworks for interpreting participant behaviors. Paulo Freire has defined characteristics of people moving toward higher thinking levels and decision-making ability. Combining Freire's thoughts with restructuring provides a conceptual model allowing leaders to interpret the organizational…

Uses qualitative research methods (interviews, classroom observations, and document analysis) to determine whether a rural midwestern high school's restructuring process serves particular values and silences others. Findings showed lack of consideration for social power and student identity issues. Basic restructuring elements (outcome-based…

Researchers followed six high schools where teachers had shared decision-making (SDM) powers, comparing them with six high schools that used traditional administrative structures. The study did not show that SDM focused more attention on curriculum and understanding, but SDM did help enhance participating teachers' commitment to implementing…

Some feel that outcome-based education and school-based management have been adopted as the new conventional wisdom to guide accountability without compelling research evidence. OBE proponents argue that currently expressed outcomes for student learning are neither sufficiently rigorous nor appropriate for students' future lives. Likely trends and…

Examines how faculty and student leaders in the Tutoring Enrichment Assistance Models for Schools (TEAMS) project, a community service project at the University of Massachusetts (Amherst) challenge assumptions that college students have about tutoring and promote new understanding of stereotypes, hierarchical group dynamics, and inequality in…

Summarizes school reform efforts in several urban districts, focusing on professional unionism and its superiority to traditional industrial unionism. These districts exemplify the art of school leadership, as administrators work through challenges to administrative authority, feelings of being excluded, and overloaded agendas. Teaming,…

The executive director of the Council for Exceptional Children discusses the importance of collaborative action to achieve common goals, applies these principles to special education, and describes a collaborative effort with nine other national associations to identify and promote good practice principles for the planning and operation of…

Explores the educational obstacles faced by Native Americans specific to their sociohistorical contexts. Seven specific obstacles and how they can be overcome through changes to structure, content, and processes are illustrated from work with Zuni students in New Mexico. (SLD)

In a workshop session, the 1995-96 Virginia Community College System Administrative Leadership Seminar participants accepted a challenge to come up with a theoretical framework to reinvent the community college for the 21st century. They formed groups to address five major areas of educational change: teaching/learning, instructional/student…

Describes the characteristics, implementation, and evaluation of eight school restructuring designs in an impoverished, urban, district in 1995 in Memphis (Tennessee). Type of program design, quality of professional training, resources, principal leadership, and teacher support affected the restructuring. (MMU)

High school improvement is possible with visionary leadership and common goals. Ayer (Massachusetts) High School is a small, comprehensive school that has restructured itself to meet 21st century needs. Revolutionary changes have occurred in instructional improvement, core curriculum, technology education, class size, graduation requirements,…

A former principal describes how a "problem" rural Alaskan school became a model of positive self-esteem, community involvement, student achievement, and enthusiasm for learning. She discusses problems (cultural dissonance and fragmented curricula), the project's philosophical basis in cultural sensitivity and personality-type theory,…

Describes the University of New Mexico's College of Education, examining difficult circumstances under which reform is occurring. The paper highlights strategies used to accomplish change, including destabilization; new communication patterns; organizational structure; new faculty hiring; external support for the college; curriculum change;…