During the past 30 years, the author has served as a management consultant to companies that wanted to achieve revolutionary change to become more successful. He has worked with companies as small as 100 employees and as large as General Motors, IBM and Amgen, the world's largest biotechnology company. More recently he has worked (as a pro bono…

A series of reviews over the past six years from Dearing ( NCIHE, 1997) to Lambert (Lambert, 2003) have addressed the question of whether the structure and process of governance in higher education is fit for modern times. This is a proper question to ask as operating environments change and pressures on institutional resources increase. Indeed,…

The call for the transformation of schools has come at a time when fewer people are seeking the principalship. Some contend that it is rapidly becoming 'mission impossible'. This paper presents a more optimistic view. Scenarios for the future of schools are canvassed. Knowledge management is critically important. Partnerships on an unprecedented…

This paper has shown how XML (extensible Markup Language) can be used to mark up content. Since XML documents, with meaningful tags, can be interpreted easily by humans as well as computers, they are ideal for the interchange of information. Because XML tags can be defined by an individual or organization, XML documents have proven useful in a…

Uses and consequences of educational testing have increased dramatically in recent years. Professional standards to ensure fair treatment of all affected by test results are more important than ever, but standards for developing and using educational tests are only helpful if they are followed. Test developers and users each have a role to play in…

Policy makers in education have long embraced reform. Unfortunately, education reforms have consistently been plagued by the reformers' lack of knowledge and appreciation of the history of education. Accordingly, the latest reform, touted as a panacea, meets with failure, and the search for the magic elixir begins anew. The ahistorical nature of…

The trends and innovations in re-forming writing instruction and the problems faced by the teachers while testing the students by their scores on writing are discussed. The teachers will have to teach the students to become more confident and effective writers and also teach them how to use various elements of writing flexibly and adaptively.

This article describes the nature and utility of fiscal analysis in evaluating complex community interventions. Using New York University's evaluation of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Urban Health Initiative as an example, the authors describe issues arising in defining and operationalizing constructs for fiscal analysis. The approachs…

One of the most significant events in the life of a school is a change in its leadership. Yet few things in education succeed less than leadership succession. Failure to care for leadership succession is sometimes a result of manipulation or self-centeredness; but more often it is oversight, neglect, or the pressures of crisis management that are…

The relationship between reading and empowerment, though often taken for granted, is complex. The paper describes a pilot research project, which sought to explore how teachers might change their practice in such a way as to empower the children in their care, rather than enculture them into the rather more passive and compliant practices of…

Bottom-up reform as a policy strategy for decades has faltered in implementation. This article starts from the premise that these disappointing results stem from researchers' and practitioners' almost exclusive focus on implementation in schools or on what some call "the bottom" of hierarchical education systems but not shifts in policy…

Despite an enormous diversity of institutional types and our historic commitment to access, there is a numbing sameness across our campuses when it comes to the actual practice of teaching and learning. Different colleges recruit different students, serve different audiences, and teach different bodies of knowledge. But they do it all using the…

Proposes a conceptual framework based on an ecological model for helping teenagers once they become parents. Discusses three social service programs for pregnant teens, including prevention and intervention programs and shelters, and proposes an alternative program that provides a home environment in cases in which parents no longer support…

Notwithstanding empirical, pedagogical, and ethical criticism, the practice of tracking remains widespread. In part, this is because the process of detracking is seen as difficult and uncertain. This article uses case studies to introduce and illustrate 2 alternative approaches for moving forward with detracking reforms. The first, winning them…

In this article, the author discusses educational experiences of indigenous children. The author points out that while there are those who have the luxury of access to formal schooling, many do not. In the Second Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, many indigenous representatives discussed common education issues including poor…