School organizations must become responsive and flexible to address rapidly changing social, economic, and demographic conditions. Reform attempts to date have not worked because they were layered on old structures and perceptions in a fragmented, piecemeal fashion. The fundamental transformation of education that is required demands a paradigm…

Teaching for understanding is a concept that portrays teachers as guides, coaches, and facilitators of student learning. This book, which provides concrete illustrations of what teaching for understanding entails, is divided into chapters as follows: (1) "Introduction: New Visions of Teaching" (Milbrey W. McLaughlin, Joan E. Talbert);…

Research, policy, and practice in the field of school and family partnerships are reviewed; and practical ideas are offered to help educators move toward partnership. Important distinctions are drawn in approaches that avoid or promote full partnerships. Less than adequate approaches discussed are a protective model, a school-to-home transmission…

The growing emphasis on accountability and the demand for better prepared students is pressing institutions of higher education to examine restructuring. Student experiences represent an important arena for school restructuring, and a useful approach to changing student experiences is the Tech Prep Mapping (TPM) process. The TPM process requires…

This article tells the story of a group of teachers who experienced change in the face of a newly formed professional development school--one that loosely implemented many of the principles associated with the Holmes Group model. Specifically, these teachers became active participants on the Steering Committee, a group formed within the context of…

This proceedings of a conference focusing on the school-community relationship contains eight papers. "A Changing Rural America: The Context for School/Community Development" compares community development with economic development and offers suggestions for rural schools to participate in community development. "Integrating the…

The Southwest Regional Laboratory (SWRL) is adapting Success for All, a prominent early-elementary school program for at-risk minority youths, for use with disadvantaged limited English proficient students whose primary language is Spanish. The Johns Hopkins University Center for Research on Effective Schooling for Disadvantaged Students is…

Written under the joint auspices of the Educational Excellence Network of Vanderbilt University (Tennessee) and the National Conference of State Legislatures, this book contains nine chapters, by leading educators, divided into five sections that explore the major issues in education reform. Following a foreword by John Martin and an introduction…

Amherst Middle School (Sherwood, Washington) has been undergoing a change process initiated by a small group of teachers who began an investigation into excellence in middle school education. An outcome has been that Amherst became a Puget Sound Professional Development School (PSPDS) while implementing a state-sponsored School for the…

In 1988 the Kentucky Supreme Court upheld a previous decision that the state public education system had failed to provide an efficient system of common schools. The Kentucky Educational Reform Act (KERA, 1990) came from this decision. This paper reviews the restructuring of a primary school under the KERA, focusing on one collaborative effort…

This paper describes a 1993-94 pilot program in Memphis (Tennessee) that was developed to increase the number of minority students prepared for, matriculating to, and graduating from postsecondary institutions. The communitywide partnership of institutions that implemented the program is described, along with the needs assessment commissioned by…

Teachers are the central players in building a multiracial and multicultural democracy, and the schools where teachers work are one of the primary institutions where a new society is born. The 17 chapters in this volume provide resources for people seeking to build fully democratic schools and to make the schools agents of democracy in an…

This monograph addresses the issue of full inclusion of children and youth with severe intellectual disabilities and whether this form of social and academic integration is consistent with the direction of present school reform policies. The first section examines the implications of current efforts in educational reform. A case study illustrates…

This report envisions Texas schools using one another as resources and the campus planning process as a vehicle for implementing research-based concepts and practices in the middle grades. Since Texas' restructuring effort will not succeed without commitment to staff development from all levels of the education community, the need for teacher and…

This bibliography provides a recommended list of research and theoretical literature in school restructuring. The literature, chosen to be of interest for practitioners, policymakers, and researchers, is organized into five areas: (1) General References on School Restructuring is divided into proposals for school reform, how schools work, and the…