Explores stressors, role changes, and paradoxes encountered by four administrators and two teacher-leaders since their high school began restructuring in 1994. Identifies decision-making anxieties, role conflict and ambiguity, and accountability apprehension as sources of stress. Restructuring was impeded by training inadequacies; bureaucratic,…

A case study of two school boards in Alberta examines how financially driven policy reforms have been translated into practice at the level of school districts and schools. Describes the policy games adopted by district- and school-level administrators as well as the consequences of policy directives. (Contains 38 references.) (MLF)

Summarizes major differences between, and compatibility of, site-based management (SBM) and choice as strategies for restructuring schools. Examines the following areas of comparison: focus; impact timing; nature of impacts; teacher empowerment; empowerment basis; roles assigned parents; professionalization strategy; accountability; change…

A staff development program for a New Jersey school district involved a day-long visit to a new corporate office complex to acquaint teachers with a modern electronic office and the need to prepare students for the modern workplace. (MLF)

Describes a plan for a professional development program in educational systems design to prepare facilitators in educational change and restructuring efforts. Highlights include roles in the change process; values and criteria for design; change strategies; emotional stages; attitudinal roadblocks; and needed competencies and skills, including…

Philosophical and theoretical debates have created some uncertain direction in the curriculum field. The article claims that efforts toward systematic curriculum reform may fail because of inconsistency, maintaining that effective curricular and systematic reform will occur when stakeholders agree on intended goals and identify actions that…

The experiences of two school districts (Omaha, Nebraska, and Littleton, Colorado) highlight the actions needed to maintain the momentum of school improvement. Factors that influence momentum include strong and stable leadership, sufficient time to build relationships, empowerment of key parties, parental involvement, community support, staff…

Shifting the budgetary decision-making authority to individual schools provides principals, teachers, and parents greater control over the allocation of resources. (MLF)

Examines the advantage to urban education of school-to-work transition programs. A vision is presented for a work-centered education that takes full advantage of the best characteristics of cities and clarifies how this approach addresses some of the serious problems facing urban schools. The author indicates how these programs can invigorate…

This overview of several programs, techniques, and approaches related to improving schools and student learning includes brief outlines of restructuring, effective schools, cooperative learning, whole language, technology, multiple intelligences, the Coalition of Essential Schools, the Accelerated Schools Project, the School Development Program,…

This paper examines school restructuring, the national education goals, and opportunities to improve the quality of education for adolescents with behavioral disorders. The paper favors adjustment as a goal along with achievement, a focus on broad outcomes of education, and links between mental health and education. (JDD)

Examines the role of the principal in restructuring schools. Skills to meet the restructuring needs of the school can be obtained through on-going principal development. Programs, activities, and support exist for principals who pursue development, but they must inaugurate the process themselves. (SLD)

The effective schools approach and restructuring are two overlapping and sometimes compatible strategies for school improvement. The effective schools approach allows teachers to choose from a menu of proven strategies, whereas restructuring presents a blank slate in hopes of more radical solutions that support more teacher ownership. (SLD)

Conceptualizes multicultural education as an interdisciplinary field focusing on racial, ethnic, and cultural groups, and on both genders. The development of African-American scholarship is traced as a vital root of the multicultural education movement. The intergroup education movement of the 1940s and 1950s is also discussed. (SLD)

Presents a constructivist framework for educational reform. Describes technology's role in child-driven learning. Supports a wholesale revision of educational practice that focuses on children's competencies and integrates technology so that it supports the deeper more reflective self-directed activity children must use if they are to become…