This paper examines the relationship between demands for site-based management and restructuring as they bear on recent theory and research on power in organizations. It also defines and describes the new face of power in the schools--facilitative power, power exercised through, rather than over, subordinates. The bulk of the paper consists of an…

The status of current doctoral administrator preparation programs is analyzed. An assessment of 17 doctorate of education programs in administration and leadership concludes that they do not differ significantly from traditional doctorate programs in education in terms of curriculum, student admissions, exit criteria, delivery format, and…

This journal issue features a review of the edited volume, "Building a Professional Culture in Schools," and an interview with Charles Thompson, the associate dean for clinical studies at Michigan State University's College of Education. The review discusses the book's three major sections: one arguing for new professional roles for teachers; a…

This collection of papers addresses three important aspects of professional practice schools: student learning, teacher development, and implementation issues related to collaboration among institutions and state policy environment. The first paper, "The Child as Meaning Maker: The Organizing Theme of Professional Practice Schools" (Ellen M.…

Educating disadvantaged students will demand a national commitment to increasing the resources devoted to the task, restructuring the schools in which the disadvantaged are educated, and conducting research needed to make those schools more effective. Educationally disadvantaged students have been exposed to insufficient educational experiences in…

The state role in educational funding as a major educational policy issue is discussed in this digest. The school finance system debate has been stimulated by property tax issues, changing demographic and economic conditions, emphasis on qualitative improvement, and school restructuring. Implications for local administrators include increased…

Since 1982-83, Spencerport Central School District (New York) has conducted a project to improve the educational program and student learning in each building of the district. This report provides a comprehensive overview of the project, focusing on five elementary schools. The project's goal for each building is that at least 95 percent of all…

U.S. industry and the U.S workplace are changing. More highly skilled jobs are replacing unskilled and semiskilled jobs, and more jobs require higher-order thinking skills. At the same time, the education system is failing to educate young people to fill those jobs in the future. Although a higher percentage of students graduate than ever before,…

The view that fundamental changes in the educational system are necessary for successful restructuring is reflected in this collection of papers. The first five papers set the context for restructuring design by presenting rationales, models, and definitions. The next three papers focus on educational design processes, and the following two papers…

Recent educational reform initiatives have caused the state to examine its role in regulation of schools, and the current regulatory processes have been found to be in need of revision. The current system, in which the state grants "recognition" to schools that meet its standards based on whether they meet a rigidly defined set of…

Since 1987, 12 California school districts and their teachers' unions have experimented with a new form of labor accord called an Educational Policy Trust Agreement. The project helps teachers, as represented by their unions, and school management to reach agreements on issues that are not included within the scope of traditional collective…

As part of the broader policy debate on how to reform K-12 education, particularly high schools, basic questions about career and technical education are on the table. "Remaking Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century" begins with a summary of what researchers know--and do not know--about the value of high school…

This book argues that large American high schools have become obsolete and uses case studies of four new or restructured schools to show why smallness and distinctiveness are prerequisites for school reform. The large comprehensive high school developed as an economical means of providing a range of "tracks," from practical subjects for future…

This report describes the Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound Project (ELOB), a 3-year project launched by Outward Bound USA in 1992 with a grant from the New American Schools Development Corporation. The major goal of the ELOB was to develop new schools or transform existing ones into centers of expeditionary learning, in which learning would…

Several years after the passage of NCLB, there are persistently low-performing schools in every state that face increasingly strong consequences for failing to improve student achievement sufficiently. In particular, schools that fail to make AYP for five consecutive years must engage in restructuring to improve student learning. Districts have…