School principals have difficulty embracing the competing demands of school restructuring. These demands include being accountable for the outcomes of other decision-making groups within, or external to, the school community; having strong views while making decisions collaboratively; and using group processes without wasting the time, commitment,…

Educational research has been criticised by governments and practitioners. For some politicians and policy makers, there is a tendency to look for direct links between research and successful, effective and efficient practice. Research is needed to inform their evidence-based practice as policy makers, and to provide the kind of research teachers…

In this article, the author discusses how the municipal authorities eliminate the names of all schools in eastern Berlin in 1990 to formalize the spontaneous purge of school identities. She added, that the renaming of primary and secondary schools at this historical juncture provides a unique vantage point for examining what the democratic turning…

The study will trace the external factors influencing the liberalization, deregulation and privatization of higher education in Malaysia from 1970 to the present and to analyze the effects of liberalization, deregulation and privatization on the modes of privatization and the internal restructuring of institutions of higher learning to increase…

This consumer guide, for the first time ever, provides comparative ratings on the effectiveness and quality of seven widely adopted Education Service Providers (ESPs)--nonprofit or for-profit organizations that contract with new or existing public, charter, or private schools and/or school districts to provide comprehensive services. This report…

Students benefit from a year or more gain in student achievement when urban district and high school leaders commit to the implementation of the "High Schools That Work" ("HSTW") design. It is not enough to be a "HSTW" site--it is about taking effective actions to implement the design. Schools that do take action witness significant progress in…

Improving Schools--Investing in Our Future provides a foundation for improving student learning and performance, and improving aspects of schooling. Chapter (1) provides information about Alberta's well--established K-12 education system. Alberta's school-aged population is becoming more diverse with growing numbers of Aboriginal and immigrant…

This monograph is based on a keynote presentation by Angus McBeath at the "Getting Districtwide Results" Conference in Long Beach, California, which was co-sponsored by the Cross City Campaign for Urban School Reform and Focus on Results. The author, a former superintendent of the Edmonton Public Schools, how his school district was…

High school reform has moved to the top of the education policy agenda, commanding the attention of the federal government, governors, urban school superintendents, philanthropists, and the general public. All are alarmed by stubbornly high dropout rates, by the low academic achievement of many high school students, and by the large numbers of…

The process through which a school adopts a comprehensive school reform (CSR) model has been suggested to be a key element in the lifecycle of school reform, contributing to stakeholder buy in and subsequent implementation. We studied the model adoption process, both on a national scale with survey data and in more depth with qualitative case…

Comprehensive school reform (CSR) is only as effective as its implementation. By using data collected for the National Longitudinal Evaluation of Comprehensive School Reform (NLECSR), this article explores the factors that predict CSR model implementation and the ways that CSR model implementation varies. We found little difference in the fidelity…

A paucity of research exists regarding the relative strengths and limitations and effects on practice in gifted education state policies. The purpose of this five-state study is to shed light on selected states' gifted education policies. Four data sources were probed and comparisons were made within each state and across the five states.…

This article looks at the perils and promises of standards-based instruction in urban environments. We begin with an outline of the rise of the current standards movement. Then turn to the con position which contends; states, schools and districts do not always implement standards-based ideals effectively, especially in urban settings where…

Progressive education was pluralistic and often contradictory in its missions, motives, and degrees of success as was progressivism in general. The larger political progressive movement with its genesis in the latter half of the nineteenth century peaked in the Progressive Era at the beginning of the twentieth century. Until Lawrence Cremin's…

The Institute for Research and Reform in Education (IRRE) is dedicated to helping schools raise the academic performance of all students to levels required for postsecondary education and high-quality employment. To accomplish this, IRRE developed First Things First (FTF), a reform framework grounded in research about how young people develop and…