After a period of top-down control under the mayor, the New York City system is freeing schools to run their own affairs--and holding them accountable for results. This fall, for the first time, each of the district's 1,456 public schools gained unprecedented control over budgetary and instructional decisions that previously resided with the…

Many policymakers feel pressure to claim that No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is boosting student performance, as Congress reconsiders the federal government's role in school reform. But how should politicians and activists gauge NCLB's effects? The authors offer evidence on three barometers of student performance, drawing from the National Assessment…

This article is an attempt to critique some of the limitations of dominant school reform discourses in education, drawing upon the work of Michel Foucault, Michael Apple, Maxine Greene, and Dennis Carlson, in addition to writers in the emerging field of what might be called "eco-progressivism." The intersections between ecology and education can…

The ills of urban schools are well documented. The challenges of recruiting and retaining quality teachers, student mobility, poor conditions of school facilitates, and lack of parent involvement are only a few of the issues related to urban schools. Large comprehensive high schools are a staple of many urban school districts. This model of…

Efforts to infuse market forces into public education are based on the supposition that these forces can improve student outcomes. This assumption does not consider the politics of implementation. This article examines state-initiated school privatization and reveals factors that influence translation of theory to practice. The cases depict what…

The Colorado Strategic Options Initiative promotes the restructuring and redesign of education to enable all schools and communities to meet all students' and citizens' needs in the future. The concept of restructuring education may be seen as part of an evolutionary process from the 20th century industrial, assembly-line model to the eventual…

Incubators are organizations that aim to decrease the learning curve for new schools and increase the likelihood that promising school plans will succeed. Incubators offer communities an innovative new way to support locally-initiated school designs. This design guide is intended to help people who are interested in starting a school incubator…

Instructional quality is one of the most important factors in effective teaching. Without it, school reform is impossible. How can leaders develop and implement strategies to improve faculty quality and then manage the process of school reform in today's complex school environments? The authors answer this question through the study of a systemic…

The nation's governors have put high school reform at the top of their agendas, charging their association--the National Governors Association--with energizing a multi-year effort to overhaul high school education. Across the country, reformers are stepping forward with new high school "designs" aimed at preparing students for the challenges of…

In fall 2002, three large traditional high schools in Chicago, Illinois, started a conversion process that opened five new small schools. In partnership with Mills College, the Consortium on Chicago School Research designed a short-term, interview-based study to provide a snapshot of these new small schools in their first year of planning and…

In announcing the start of the work of New American Schools (NAS) in 1991, President George Bush offered the challenge of designing new schools for the year 2000 and beyond. In 2000, NAS remains committed to the mission of providing schools with the vision and tools they need to transform themselves based on exemplary models for comprehensive…

This study investigated how the Accelerated Schools Project (ASP) school restructuring model fostered the capacity for teachers to become leaders, noting improvements that happened as a result of teachers becoming leaders. Data came from three rural ASP schools attended by low socioeconomic status PreK-6 students. Interviews with teachers and the…

The purpose of this guidebook is to clarify why policymakers should expand the focus of school reform to encompass a reframing and restructuring of education support programs and services and to offer some guidance on how to go about doing so. Section 1 deals with the need to restructure support services and offers ideas for new directions.…

This report, the third annual report on the Restructuring and Collaboration Fund (R&CF) of the Higher Education Funding Council for England, summarizes the progress and projects being funded through the R&CF that had been approved before the end of December 2000. Section 1 is a summary table listing all projects and grant allocations…

Uses Thomas Sergiovanni's mindscape notion to show that current formulations influencing leadership language are archaic and inappropriate. Proposes alternative models, using concepts such as intellectualism, artistry, and moral confidence. Argues for a closer linkage between the languages of leadership and learning, in contrast to vocabularies of…