Traces evolution of the charter school movement from the author's initial proposals in the early 1970s to today's unprecedented opportunity for educators and citizens to revitalize their schools and vastly improve educational quality. Chartering all schools would truly decentralize schools and strengthen school-based management. (MLH)

Identifies factors distinguishing fast-starter from slow-starter schools during the first year of the Memphis Restructuring Initiative, which follows a "cell-division" implementation model. Startup is enhanced by strong administrative leadership; a restructuring model matching schools' current beliefs; curricula aligned with state…

School governance has recently dominated Canadian provinces' political agendas. Every province has reduced the number of school boards and centralized decision making. This article summarizes school board and funding status in each province and territory. Alberta, British Columbia, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Quebec have…

Presents six strategies by which student affairs professionals can develop management credibility and create understanding and direct support for the goals, functions, and operating approaches of their work. Emphasizes strategies for improving management within student affairs divisions to produce a better environment for working, budgeting, and…

High-performing schools, it is noted, share an organizational culture in which administrators, staff, and students agree on a common purpose for educational outcomes and undertake cooperative team efforts to reach these goals. A Virginia high school transformed its culture by providing comprehensive professional development and teacher-leadership…

A re-engineering of the educational system is proposed that focuses on mastery and more substantial learning activities and eliminates the constraints to learning that arise from the current insistence on grouping children by age. It is argued that eliminating age-based grouping has advantages that outweigh social disadvantage. (SLD)

Details the undergraduate curriculum revision undertaken by Guilford College, North Carolina, in 1996. Reports that the college's goals included development of strong courses that expressed concretely both the college's core identity, and, in the case of general education, the particular requirements the courses were to satisfy. Adds that the…

Suggests that "critical spirituality," an amalgamation of critical theory and African American prophetic spirituality, can enhance the discourse of transformative educational leadership that engages the existence of race, class, and gender inequalities present in schools as an agenda for institutional change. (Contains 19 references.)…

John Chubb and Terry Moe believe that the failure of schools to educate children is attributable to their institutional nature. During the past 25 years, the American public school system has been expected to resolve every social inequity. Bureaucracy has had a stifling effect on education, but its removal through parental choice will also remove…

To move high schools into the twenty-first century, school leadership must undergo massive restructuring. Four reasons for schools' inability to change are cited, and characteristics of effective and efficient school are identified. An eight-step process of school restructuring and a school-design statement with three basic components and eight…

Examines the relationship between the curriculum and the assessment practices of a group of 14 teachers to determine the degree that change efforts directed at teachers' curricular and instructional approaches have affected other areas of professional practice. Findings indicate that teachers still rely on traditional assessment methods, although…

This reaction to Mitchell Yell (EC 611 140) contends that a trend toward judicially ordered least restrictive environment (LRE) placements for children with disabilities has begun. School officials are urged to take a more active role in restructuring educational systems so that inclusion can become a reality. If educators do not take the lead,…

Examines reform debates in educational administration training programs using a theoretical framework derived from Thomas Kuhn's notion of paradigm. Most administrator training programs in the United States are characterized as hybrid/preparadigm departments unlikely to undertake fundamental changes. Using a collaborative school leadership program…

In this excerpt from her new book, "National Standards in American Education: A Citizen's Guide," Diane Ravitch argues that there are steps local school boards, parents, and communities can take to implement educational reform and high academic standards. (MLF)

Tests the effectiveness of senior educational administrators' efforts to cope with stress in a decentralizing Australian state education department of over 2,000 schools employing 60,000 professional staff members. Presents general findings of a self-report, coping-strategies questionnaire and reveals some significant relationships among general…