The reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) provides an opportune occasion to take a fresh look at the federal role in teacher professional development. Funds designed to improve teachers' professional prowess currently are tucked into a number of federally funded programs--programs, for example, for students living in…

The fabric of educational leadership is changing. Murphy (2001) has suggested three new metaphors for educational leaders: moral stewards, builders of communities, and educators for school improvement. However, shifting priorities and contradictions between these metaphors could result in fragmentation within the field. This article discusses…

The achievement gap that exists between Black and White students--even those from similar economic backgrounds--is an ongoing challenge for educators. Although schools receive much of the blame, the gap is more the result of social class characteristics that go beyond even the best schools and teachers. Raising the achievement of lower-class…

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Beyond Auto Shop 1: Is Career and Technical Education a Promising Path for High School Reform? (Lucy Hood); (2) The School Readiness Gap:…

This paper is organized around three central questions: (1) What should be the primary goals of high school reform and what is the critical set of outcomes that matter for students? (2)Shat do we know about the strategies schools could use to pursue those goals? and (3) What are the implications of these strategies for the development of high…

The Chattanooga (Tennessee) public schools are building a national reputation for the work they are doing to improve the city's schools. The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, which has promised substantial grants for the reform of urban middle school education in Chattanooga, asked the Southern Education Foundation, through its Focused Reporting…

This paper examines the issues that emerged in the first six months of a collaborative program initiated by the Massachusetts State Department of Education for simultaneously developing or improving middle school teacher preparation programs and restructuring middle schools. The literature on interorganizational collaboration provides a framework…

This paper profiles an educational reform program targeting academically and socially at-risk and underachieving students. The project began as a district-wide training program for school psychologists, guidance counselors, social workers, and elementary-level instructional consultants. The program focuses on helping schools to plan for and…

This document, developed by the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) working group in 1991, presents recommendations for educational reform for OECS region. The plan was derived through analysis of the educational systems of the sub-region, interaction with chief education officers of OECS countries, national and subregional…

A tension has long existed between Americans' intense faith in education and the slow pace of changes in educational practices. Citizens have attempted to improve the future by arguing about how to improve youth through education, but actual school reforms have rarely matched expectations. Why this situation has occurred, and why such resistance…

Although it is evident that the Industrial Age has given way to the Information Age, educational institutions are still using Industrial Age models of instruction that encourage passive learning and stress knowledge mastery. In the media-rich Information Age, educators must shift to instructional models that put learners at the core of both the…

This report outlines key issues and provides a baseline for an examination of the progress of states, districts, and schools toward realizing the objectives of the restructured Title I program. The fundamental goal of the new Title I is to help children who are at risk of school failure improve their academic achievement. The National Assessment…

This book describes the efforts of teachers to develop new strategies for looking at children's work and learning in three schools that are involved in the radical restructuring of education in concert with networks of reformers (the Coalition of Essential Schools, Foxfire, and Project Zero). The assessment strategies that these teachers are…

School reform in the 1990s has been focused on school-based restructuring, with local efforts shown to be more successful than earlier central or remote control approaches. Success has followed changes in teachers' classroom behavior, in the structure of the school, and its school culture. The local school restructuring approach is illustrated…

This book presents a design for initiating, implementing, and institutionalizing a consultation-based service delivery system in school settings, based on the Instructional Consultation Teams (IC-Teams) model. It brings together the literature on school consultation and school change, for practitioners in general and special education and in…