Recounts the history of Pennsylvania's attempts to invoke large-scale changes in language-related instructional curricula. Discerns patterns among school districts in terms of literacy instruction as well as in factors that seem to be associated with successful change processes. (RS)

By permitting alternative certification, West Virginia is relaxing standards for principal preparation. Few business managers will trade less demanding, better paying jobs for principalships. Collegiality will erode, as teachers vie for administrative positions. Practitioners lacking professional training might accept top-down edicts and…

When the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program (MSPAP) was unveiled in 1991, schools faced a public supportive of change but unhappy with the tests' implications--measurement of school, not student performance. Teachers helped design a nationally normed test to complement MSPAP. The process involved listening, communication, and…

Examines how states are handling aged, overcrowded, and obsolete school facilities. Includes interviews with the directors of facility programs in Arizona, Ohio, and West Virginia to see what works and what doesn't work in state-run programs that seek to strike a balance between state money and local control. (GR)

Describes how Rampano College preserved and redesigned its student affairs programs and services while being forced to manage statewide cutbacks in overall funding. Discusses how the Division of Student Affairs agreed upon concrete principles on how to best use resources and services, thereby meeting the challenges of the fiscal crisis while also…

Discusses the Arizona statewide mandate to spend $500 million to repair or replace roofs in its public school system. Data from the state's evaluation process are provided, including how the state will fund the project. (GR)

Discusses how the city of Clayton, Missouri, forged a relationship with its school district to simultaneously maximize public dollars while solving its need for two types of facilities: a new high school and a community facility. (GR)

Since contemporary school finance litigation began in the 1960s, almost every state has experienced school finance litigation or the threat of litigation. To date, 45 states have encountered lawsuits challenging their funding of public schools. Delaware, Hawaii, Mississippi, Nevada, and Utah are the five states that have had no school funding…

Struggling to jump-start education in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, the district school board has decided to reopen its first buildings not as regular public schools, but as charter schools. Indeed, the board's vote followed weeks of high-level talks among officials in the offices of the governor, the state schools superintendent, the state…

The paper aims to investigate the role assigned to state schools in France and Italy in constructing social cohesion and a common citizenship. The theme will be treated by individuating three different stages of a process of progressive mutual rapprochement between state and civil society. From the separatist phase, passing through an intermediate…

As a result of an evaluation of Title IV programs commissioned by the Utah State Office of Education, this manual addresses the needs of government agencies in providing technical assistance, such as proposal and report preparation or budget management, to local education agencies. Emphasis falls on the funding of technical assistance services,…

Understanding the differences between education governance structures is important to understanding the entire education policy process. In almost all states, fiscal responsibility for education rests with the governor and the legislature. State education governance structures differ, falling into four basic models. In the first model the governor…

Everybody connected with our schools should have a deep understanding of the laws which apply to our schools and the behavior of everyone associated with them. Article provided more than a brief glance at school laws dealing wholly with statues with primary effect on education. (Author/RK)

Argues for the elimination of the control that some municipal fiscal boards have over education. (IRT)