In the 1970s, Ontario secondary schools started to adopt the semester system, four courses over the day where there had been seven. With this change, a creative outdoor educator realized that one teacher could take a group of students for all four credits, eliminating the restrictions of the timetable and addressing opportunities to learn in the…

Coalition education policy threatens to transform the school system in England. A combination of public spending cuts, and the drive to making all schools Academies, represents a key moment in the restructuring of the education service along neo-liberal lines. This article argues that there is nothing distinctively "new" about Coalition…

This article explores the context of the period following the Education Reform Act 1988 in terms of the efforts by successive governments to raise academic standards. These attempts are illustrated by discussion of the impact of the introduction of market forces and parental choice, a centralised National Curriculum and associated assessment…

This article features Wade Hampton High School in Greenville County, South Carolina. Named for Wade Hampton III--a Civil War hero, a US senator, and a governor--Wade Hampton High School celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2010 in a beautiful, modern, state-of-the-art facility built on the original school site in 2007. Although most of the 1,600…

This study examined selected community stakeholders' perception of the current leadership at their local community educational learning center during an organizational transformation and cultural change process. The transition from a community college to an educational learning center, mandated in 2006 by the Accredition Commission and agreed on…

In 2006, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell unveiled the Classrooms For the Future (CFF) technology initiative. The stated outcome of the program was to provide a vehicle for high school reform which transforms Pennsylvania's schools into a more engaging atmosphere that equips students with the necessary skills for the 21st century. The study…

In this article, the author answers Mark Holmes's comments on his article "Imagined Evidence and False Imperatives." Certainly, readers can see in Holmes's comment the prevailing disagreement about the importance of existing data sets to an assessment of the effects of competition and other aspects of genuine markets. Holmes acknowledges the…

While US parents have historically played supporting roles in schooling, they are becoming increasingly involved in education advocacy and policy. Contemporary school reform requires political muscle to enact controversial changes, meaning entrenched interest groups such as teachers unions have traditionally enjoyed an outsized impact in the realm…

The purpose of this qualitative research study was to follow 1 principal's journey to assist the district in its reconfiguration goals, and help the school change through deep examination of district personnel's and parents' perceptions of the change process. This was done by acknowledging distinctions and differences between junior…

The purpose of the study was to examine which culturally responsive practices, if any, were in a school that is closing an achievement gap between White and Black students. Through a qualitative case study, the researcher documented the use of culturally responsive practices school-wide, in a school making significant gains narrowing an…

This paper provides a synthesis of educational reforms in Canadian schools over the past century to present times. The unique emphasis is to document the broad movements of change in both special and regular education. We begin our analysis with a detailed discussion on the many meanings of school restructuring and highlight the ongoing nature of…

Career-focused education offered through programs of study (POS), career pathways, and career and technical education (CTE) can provide students with opportunities to engage in career exploration and development, to establish career goals, to increase academic knowledge and skills, to test career preferences in applied settings, and to make links…

In his essay "Individuality, Equality, and Creative Democracy--the Task Before Us," Jim Garrison (2012, in this issue) restates Dewey's call "to educate individuals capable of criticizing and recreating society--not simply reproducing the status quo." He writes that under the new structural feudalism, "schools assume the…

This report provides a view of Career and Technical Education (CTE) and multiple path approaches, along with information on evaluations of its effectiveness. CTE integrates mathematics education within technical and occupational courses, establishing high standards with the expectation that such programs can qualify graduates for postsecondary…

Purpose and Method of Study. The primary purpose of this research was to explore the beliefs of Illinois public school superintendents concerning the ability of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) to enable school reform. A secondary purpose of this study was to describe the extent to which those beliefs varied based on the size of school district, type…