A study was conducted to gain a better understanding of how the term "at-risk" is defined and applied in the schools and to assess the intended and unintended consequences of four policies: attendance, the Texas Educational Assessment of Minimum Skills exit-level examination, the no pass/no play rule, and the driver's license law on…

Questions that the general public may have about the six national educational goals formulated by President Bush and the U.S. state governors in 1990 and the administration's plan for educational reform are addressed in this digest. Ten questions and brief answers are presented in the following areas: defining the goals; the attainability,…

Although much education supervision literature seems applicable to supervisory practice at all schooling levels, each level has differences, as well as similarities, regarding supervisory context, supervisor roles and responsibilities, and supervisor and staff member characteristics. This paper describes and compares supervisors and supervision at…

Three phases of any change effort include initiation, implementation, and continuation. This seventh guidebook in a series of nine video conferences addresses later stages of implementation and continuation (initiation and early stages of implementation are discussed in the sixth guidebook.) In the guidebook are definitions of the three phases of…

The widening mismatch between the skills of the work force and the skill demands of the work place underlie the need for school restructuring. Fourth in a series, this document builds on and extends the issues discussed in the National Governors' Association's (NGA) previous publications and reports on case studies of early restructuring efforts…

The widening mismatch between the skills of the work force and the skill demands of the workplace underlie the need for school restructuring. Within the categories of school-level, school-district, and state-level issues, a discussion about and suggestions for restructuring U.S. education in order to improve its productivity and student…

Because they reach almost every young person in the nation, schools are best positioned to prepare the next generation of Americans for active citizenship. The public increasingly recognizes that students' civic learning is important to maintaining our representative democracy, and parents are calling for schools to help prepare young people for…

In fall 2001, Pennsylvania initiated a "friendly takeover" of the School District of Philadelphia and embarked upon what at the time was characterized as the "largest-scale privatization of public schools ever undertaken." Under the guidance of a School Reform Commission comprising members appointed by the governor and the…

In the past 30 years, research has suggested the need for much smaller high schools. In response, some administrators have attempted to subdivide big high schools into smaller entities. This digest reviews recent research on the movement to break up large schools and discusses five types of error common to such attempts--errors of autonomy, size,…

This paper examines the complexity and ambiguity of policies that purport to promote deregulation and decentralization of education. The paper describes the development of decentralization/deregulation policies in the Netherlands and applies the specific dilemmas faced in the country to the unexpected difficulty in preparing and passing a…

The need for students to experience affiliation and membership is a strong theme in recent thinking on school reform. But affiliation without concern for students' intellectual work and growth defeats the purpose of schooling. This study investigated the sources and mechanisms that sustain intellectually focused affiliation among students, defined…

Alchemy is the magical or mysterious power or process involving chemistry, magic, and philosophy in transforming one thing into another. The term is often used to describe the medieval study that sought to transform cheaper metals into gold or silver. "Educational alchemy" is the process by which schools are converted into more effective learning…

This book is about education system reform in Central and Eastern Europe, with emphasis on decentralization and management. In the past, local authorities served as implementation arms of the central ministry, while finance and decision-making were controlled by the central government, leaving local communities with little influence. New education…

To capture some of the benefits of small-scale schooling, educators are looking for ways to downsize, including dividing large schools into subunits or "schools within a school." This approach establishes within the school a smaller educational unit with a separate educational program and its own staff, students, and budget. This digest…

This paper presents a narrative of a case study conducted in an Ohio middle school as part of a 5-year nationally funded reform program, Transforming Education through Art Challenge (TETAC), which features the arts as central in integrated/interdisciplinary curriculum planning. In the school the paper reports on, there are approximately 64…