Background: Because of school districts' interest in best serving the health needs of students, many choose to administer surveys addressing controversial topics. Administering such surveys in a voluntary and anonymous manner may help reduce conflict. Methods: This is a review of 2 recent federal court of appeals decisions regarding surveying…

Based on real events that have yielded positive results for both school culture and student achievement, this inspiring story introduces the students and staff of Knownwell High School and involves you in their journey of school improvement. "Students Are Stakeholders Too!" captures students' uncanny insights in their own words and illustrates how…

This article tests a case study of public participation in the decision-making about restructuring South Africa's large cohort of higher education institutions, as inherited in 1994, against theories of South Africa's new democracy. It shows that people formally outside the higher education policy sector--students, academics, parents and the…

This study investigates the mechanisms of scaffolding in a synchronous network-based environment--the "collaborative virtual workplace". A theoretical "multi-actor" scaffolding model was formulated. The study itself focused on the role and inter-relations of verbal scaffolding by tutor "and peers" during a collaborative process of making decisions…

Colorado's 178 district superintendents are embroiled in a polite, yet pointed debate with Commissioner of Education William J. Moloney and the state school board over the state's role in helping districts raise student achievement. In this article, the author discusses Colorado district superintendents' grievances. They are calling for more…

The process of implementing change is extremely complicated, particularly when multiple innovations are being introduced simultaneously. Conflicting views exist regarding provincial versus local priorities, and available resources are declining. This report is a summary of a Master's thesis that analyzed the implementation process employed in 13…

The accelerated schools process provides a systematic approach to the restructuring of schools. Developed in 1986 by Henry M. Levin, the strategy seeks to provide the best education for all students. During the first stage, the "taking stock" phase, everyone in the school community works together to develop a comprehensive school…

This paper describes second-year outcomes in three New Jersey schools that participated in the Effective Demonstration Schools Project, a grants program that encouraged school-based improvement. The purpose of the three-year grants, awarded during the 1985-86 school year, was to improve students' basic skills performance through the application of…

Site-based management (SBM) gives teachers, principals, and communities a method for directly affecting and improving their schools. This newsletter describes some of the advantages of SBM, which can result in greater accountability for student learning and an increased opportunity for parents, teachers, students, and business. The greatest…

Under the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA), School-Based Decision Making (SBDM) is the provision that creates school councils and delegates to them the authority to make important educational decisions to improve student performance. This paper describes findings from the third year of a 5-year study of SBDM that focused on early examples of…

Decentralization has been one of the centerpieces of education reform in the United States over the past decade, yet the results so far are not encouraging. This booklet presents findings of a study that explored the hypothesis that decentralization efforts have failed to relax external constraints on schools or to enable school staffs to make…

This paper describes the recurring behavior patterns exhibited by first-year schools in the Louisiana Accelerated Schools Network during the evaluation process conducted during the years 1992 and 1993. These patterns are viewed through the lens of one of the three guiding principles of the accelerated schools process--empowerment coupled with…

This paper argues that many site-based management practices do not represent true empowerment and are not founded on a consensual framework of values, goals, and priorities developed by educational stakeholders. In addition, they often lack clearly stated operating principles. The paper distinguishes between site-based management (SBM) and…

Today, prevailing views of leadership suggest that the principal's role should not be to direct others but to create a school culture in which decisions are made collaboratively. Such "facilitative" leadership exercises power through others, not over them. The basic question is whether or not these two leadership styles are mutually…

This document consists of a 5-day high school level study unit on issues surrounding immigration into the United States. The lessons seek to engage students in the immigration debate while at the same time exploring the topic's historical background. At the core of the unit is a framework of four options for U.S. immigration policy: (1)…