Redesigning the education system to prepare citizens for the 21st century is a monumental challenge. To accomplish the job, understanding and support must come from people in all parts of the education system and community. Building support and understanding among various groups of people requires effective communication strategies and skills.…

The call to restructure schools is born from a new set of challenges facing U.S. society as well as its education system. This paper describes the process followed by 12 schools that participated in meeting the challenges in the "Schools of Tomorrow...Today" (ST/T) project, supported by the New York City Teacher Centers Consortium (TCC) of the…

The development of school culture within a comprehensive school in northern England, Deangate School, is examined in this case study, with a focus on the process of self-definition. Two aspects of school culture emerged as significant to the process of "becoming": generic culture, that which is common across secondary schools; and unique…

In 1989, South Carolina passed the Flexibility Through Desegregation Program as a means to provide exemptions from state oversight to those schools that had demonstrated sustained improvement. The first section of this paper provides an overview of educational improvement legislation enacted in South Carolina, specifically, the deregulated schools…

This policy brief explores the charter-school concept, looking specifically at: (1) the development of the charter-school idea; (2) current models of charter schools; (3) issues regarding the development of charter schools, such as district reluctance, teacher concerns, organized opposition, fiscal issues, and admission policies; and (4) progress…

Educational reforms implemented in Sri Lanka in the early 1980s are examined in this paper, which focuses on three broad areas: restructuring reforms; the principal's role; and school-community reform. The research project was carried out by Basic Research and Implementation in DevelopinG Education Systems (BRIDGES) of Harvard University…

This report examines academic calendars at Illinois' institutions of higher education and presents data for the 12 public universities on the number of instructional days as well as the number of days that instruction was not offered during the 1992-93 academic year. Data are also presented on the academic calendars of samples of Illinois public…

Before charging blindly into the issues of implementing educational choice programs, states and local districts need to stop and think about direction for efforts to improve and restructure education. Recent research shows that the most successful choice systems are tailored to their community's needs. Among the plans that have been implemented…

An in-depth examination of restructuring is provided in this policy brief, which shows how the meaning of "restructuring" changes according to the setting and participants involved. After a review of the current context of the restructuring movement, different types of reform efforts are described, which include restructuring of…

By examining 12 new middle school programs in 7 school districts in various regions of the United States, this study focuses on how decision-making and planning processes were reflected in grade reorganizations. From interviews with decision-makers involved in each of the cases, the new middle school programs were observed first for their…

Administrative leadership as a factor associated with the development of the University of New Mexico from an undergraduate teaching institution toward a nationally-ranked graduate research university is discussed. An ethnographic approach was employed for the institutional study, using documents from the university files and informal interviews.…

Three general aspects of the elementary principalship in North Dakota were examined in this study: the principal as a person and as a professional; the school and setting in which the principal works; and the principal's leadership style, style range, and adaptability. Self-report instruments were sent by mail to 75 randomly selected male…

Argues that the question for those concerned with education and politics is to determine the possibilities, limits and likely consequences of community control of the schools or its alternatives, and that by taking particular political decisions it will be possible to shape extra-political factors so as to either to enhance or to limit the…

Concludes that organizational development is a positive influence in promoting the type of school climate that allows for open relationships between teachers, students, and administrators. (AM)

Discusses the structural-functional organization of schools concluding that schools as organizations should be looked at from the sociological point of view, as agencies of socialization and agencies of moral control, and therefore should be capable of such tasks as utilizing resources and ascribing roles to participants to achieve the over-all…