This book established a plan for creating a truly integrated educational system, one that unifies the separate and parallel systems of special and general education. Chapter 1, "Students at the Margins," explores the dual tragedy of discouraged and disinterested students and presents eight essential questions guiding a unified system of…

This short paper discusses the advantages of and outlines key design issues for creating charter districts. The design issues are divided into three categories representing the three central elements of the environment the districts are trying to create for their schools: the opportunity to perform, incentives to perform, and capacity to perform.…

A study examined alternatives to retention or social promotion. Chapter 1 considers the short-term and long-term consequences of each alternative and concludes that neither improves declining graduation rates, declining ability to meet employer requirements, or the achievement gap between white students and students of color. Chapter 2 recommends…

This study is designed to gauge the impact that school reform and restructuring is having on the functions of school counselors. It explores how school counselors will work as the new century begins, and projects how changes in roles and responsibilities may impact school counselor training programs. The Delphi research method was used to forecast…

The New York City Department of Education, like other urban public school systems, is facing the task of reforming many large high schools that have had graduation rates under fifty percent for many years. With new federal sanctions for failing schools under the No Child Left Behind Act, many schools nation-wide that have been prominent…

The University of South Florida's Department of Special Education has restructured all aspects of its teacher education program in order to respond to educational reforms in institutions of higher education and reforms relative to services integration. Emphasis is on coordination with the local community on specific programs including…

Criticizes the school choice proponents' belief that exiting students would result in schools upgrading their services to remain competitive. Contends that school choice programs create less than 1% exit from public schools. Asserts that voucher programs only help the families of students already enrolled in private schools. (MJP)

Explores the views and perspectives of seven African-American urban elementary and secondary school teachers on school restructuring efforts underway in their schools. Teachers exhibit patterns of involvement that characterize them as cynical dissenters, coincidental cooperators, or committed advocates. Experienced teachers are the most skeptical…

The view of educational equity underlying the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) is apparent in the Kentucky primary education program. In addition to race, class, and gender equity concerns, the KERA primary program encompasses equity for gifted and special needs learners and teacher education for equity. (SLD)

Describes a followup study to previous research into midcareer educators' tendencies to label older colleagues as resisters to Oregon schools' restructuring efforts. Results show that such attitudes stigmatize individuals and inhibit their responses in ways that hamper the change process. More respect for lifelong professional learning is needed.…

Building upon a historical discussion of general and special education reform, this book gives suggestions on how to optimize learning for a diversity of students. The chapters in the book are: (1) "Practices in General Education: Past and Present" (Jennifer J. Coots, and others); (2) "Services for Students with Disabilities: Past…

Profiles of 66 partnerships that have developed and implemented professional development school (PDS) programs at 301 preK-12 schools are included in this directory. The profiles include information, which was collected during a national survey, on the following program features: school, college, and teachers union partners; level of faculty…

In response to unprecedented reductions in budget and personnel and changes in technology, Piedmont Virginia Community College (PVCC) developed this agenda for change to update its strategic plan to position the college for the 21st century. First, an overview is provided of PVCC's restructuring effort, highlighting causes and four planning…

The theme of the 1993 National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) was the enabling capabilities of computers and related technologies. These proceedings include the full text of 37 papers and summaries of presentations on the following general topics: teacher training, instructional applications, hypermedia, instructional software, electronic…

According to the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development, young adolescents are felt to be far more at risk for self-destructive behaviors than ever before, and middle grades schools are failing to meet students' needs. As part of a plan for restructuring middle grades education, Illinois has created a middle school endorsement added to…