In the United States today, policymakers and citizens believe that the quality of their schools must be improved. Reform policies and strategies are the focus of the first section of this report. The four areas identified are the perception and interpretation of the problems of quality, the methods of preparing reform or ad hoc measures, the main…

The demand for educational reform has reopened several debates concerning fundamental aspects of education. Three of these debates--the goals of education, school governance structures, and the locus of control for reform--are linked to teacher participation. This paper suggests that education's goals could best be addressed by action research…

Conditional deregulation of federal elementary and secondary education assistance programs, that is, waiving one or more program regulations in return for some additional accountability, has been proposed in recent years and endorsed by the Bush administration. The "America 2000" legislation proposes a broad authority for conditional…

The Neighborhood Schools Improvement Act (H.R. 3320) was ordered to be reported by the House Committee on Education and Labor on October 17, 1991. This report provides an introduction to the "systemic statewide reform" concept, on which H.R. 3320 is largely based, plus a summary of the bill, and a discussion of selected issues related to…

This article explores the role of vision and vision-building in public schools as a tool for bringing about a redirection of educational institutions. A reanalysis of 32 interviews with teachers and principals in schools involved in Oregon's "2020 School Improvement and Professional Development" program revealed that most school goals…

This book analyses the debate on the structure of higher education in Germany, France, Sweden, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, and Australia during the past 3 decades. Structural patterns or models are systematized and the way in which different countries have solved their problems in organizing higher education are…

This study was conducted to examine one suburban San Diego (California) school's attempt, under a restructuring plan, to correct resegregation in classroom assignments. A program was developed which combined gifted, regular education, and bilingual students (n=79) in grades three and four with three teachers in a team-teaching approach. Students…

Revisions occurring in preparation programs for educational leaders have come about in response to pressures from the larger reform agenda bearing on administrators, calls for improvement in educational leadership, and demands for change in administrator preparation programs. To review the types of revisions being made in these programs,…

Although the current educational restructuring movement in the United States may be designed to improve schooling, it is also a political reform designed to shift the locus of authority over allocation of this service. This political theme is developed in the context of the historical shift from decentralized to centralized delivery of urban…

The premise of this paper is that the most important need in education today is the design of an appropriate role for computers and related technologies to profoundly change teacher roles and the structure of the educational system. The discussion describes how teachers can act as central agents for meaningful educational reform. Based on a new…

Preliminary findings of a study that matched the theoretical concept of facilitative power with the activities of principals and teachers involved in site-based management are presented in this paper. Purposes of the study included: (1) the development of more precise definitions of the concepts of restructuring and site-based management; (2) a…

To lead the continuing renewal of the nation's institutions, boost U.S. economic competitiveness, and promote responsible citizenship, American education must itself be renewed and restructured. All educators must be committed to providing a high quality education for all students that results in critical and creative thinking, cooperative…

Never has the public school been asked to merely educate its students for their own benefit--a benefit determined by students' families and teachers; instead, the public schools have been expected to pursue loftier, more abstract aims that are remote to those they serve. If educational values should be determined by those responsible for…

Statements, prepared statements, letters, and supplemental materials are included in this hearing report on legislation to enact a national educational demonstration agreement for school restructuring. The goal of demonstration programs is to improve student performance at the local level with fewer federal state and local restrictions,…

Schools fail to develop students' unique capabilities mainly because of large-group instruction limitations. Mutual Instruction (MI), a comprehensive peer assistance program involving all students in cross-age tutoring and counseling, is a sound and practical approach to restructuring the conventional lock-step, assembly-line program. Teaching--or…