The implications of restructuring proposals for at risk students are examined in this ninth guidebook in a series of nine video conferences on school restructuring. Contents include a description of four approaches for the identification of at risk students: predictive, descriptive, unilateral, and school factors; a discussion of the relationship…

A synthesis of the research on educational improvement programs of the 60s and 70s provides the framework for this paper. Restructured schools featured the use of team teaching and shared decision making, and changes in curriculum content and delivery. Problem areas centered on role-related issues, ambiguous means of implementation, and lack of…

Each year, the School District of Philadelphia hires a large number of new teachers. Philadelphia needs these new teachers not because enrollment is increasing--in fact, enrollment in the public schools has been decreasing over the past few years as a result of a declining birth rate and the growth of charter schools--but because a substantial…

The author forthrightly declares in this book of essays on school reform that teachers are no more saintly than anyone else, that poor schools should be closed and lousy teachers should be fired, that philanthropy may sometimes do more harm than good, that teaching experience is not essential to being a school principal, that schools should be…

This book asserts that time and money are systematically misspent in U.S. schools, suggesting that this is a result of a variety of factors. From class schedules that fragment students' time, to budgets that invest money in dozens of activities that are essentially distractions from learning, schools try to do too much and end up delivering too…

Many urban schools are undergoing restructuring due to the problems they face and their resistance to traditional solutions. This volume deals with the various ways in which eight case-study schools in Chicago implemented strategies that called for whole-school change and system reform. The book is comprised of 10 chapters: (1)…

In this brief, the authors examine the creation, evolution, and expansion of Philadelphia's diverse provider model through the lens of this theory of change; they show that the beliefs and assumptions underlying the diverse provider model have been amended over time; and they illustrate how district and provider leaders have reshaped the model in…

Since the state takeover, the Philadelphia school district has created a new governance model, in which for-profits, non-profits, and universities receive contracts to manage schools. Further, these and other organizations also receive contracts to provide a range of additional services. The shift to a public/private institutional structure,…

Much of what is mandated and touted as cures for school improvement are not research-based and in many instances, are doing more harm than any perceived good. This book examines all aspects of the present public school reform movement and explores how capitalism and the market system does not and cannot apply to public schools. Robert Brower…

This paper examines the incompatibility between organizational structures and the efforts used to improve student learning. Following a brief introduction, it outlines why school improvement is so problematic. The essay makes the case for the incompatibility between the structure of schools and the demands for school improvement. To make this…

This case study examines programmatic change over two years of reforming a teacher education program. Two teacher educators kept ongoing journals of events, reflecting on program faculty's work and progress in supporting change. Early in the process, their journals highlighted labor intensification, with faculty members facing multiple…

This is the definitive work on information literacy. Michael Eisenberg, known worldwide as one of the originators of the innovative Big6 Information Problem Solving Process, and frequent presenters on the subject Carrie A. Lowe and Kathleen L. Spitzer have extensively revised and updated this long-awaited second edition. Tracing the history of…

For over 10 years, the accelerated schools movement has worked to implement a cohesive philosophy and process for change in over 1,000 schools in 41 states. This paper describes the characteristics of accelerated schools and details the influences that districts have on them. It demonstrates how districts influence the success or failure of…

Attention to professional community has increased markedly over the last few years as part of both practitioner and scholarly efforts to promote improvements in student learning. Interest in this area joins two previously distinct literatures--one dealing with the benefits of communal school organization, another with enhanced teacher…

From 1990 to 1995, the Center on Organization and Restructuring of Schools at the University of Wisconsin-Madison examined questions about the effects of school restructuring on student performance. Center researchers analyzed data from more than 1,500 elementary, middle, and high schools throughout the United States and conducted field research…