Movement into high-technology Information Age demands a new kind of education and new, nonbehaviorist forms of school organization. Increasing social complexity requires schools to ensure that all students learn at high levels, construct their own knowledge, and fully develop their talents. This new model of unstandardized teaching and learning…

Views the recent efforts at school restructuring and educational reform as promoting mechanistic education and measurement-driven instruction. Contends that teacher autonomy actually has been reduced because student assessment is now the responsibility of outside experts. Calls for a restructuring process that returns collaborative decision making…

Our present factory-model educational system, now desperately undergoing "restructuring," was never intended as a social equalizer but as a great American academic and social sorting machine. The archaic, restrictive goals of America 2000 are doomed, along with narrowly defined intelligence quotients. A more revolutionary, restructuring…

Kentucky's 1990 Education Reform Act instituted new governance structure creating school-based councils composed of parent and teacher representatives who participate with principals in decisions involving eight major areas. School councils' role has remained ambiguous in personnel matters. Model presented here enhances principal's decision-making…

Notes major developments in a more comprehensive approach to school policy reform: increased parental involvement, school and human service collaboration, and supporting families in ways that encourage learning. Addresses concerns and questions regarding these developments and gives examples of recent state and federal policy legislation. (CJS)

The United States is entering an era of nationalizing education as national coalitions become major reform players and the power of local school boards and district central offices continues to erode. National coalitions will provide student assessment systems and new workplace designs where school-site personnel will craft personalized learning…

Underlines the importance of principals' role as democratic leader, introduces a school-improvement theory, and shows how principals can apply it. The theory's basic building-blocks are school structure and restructuring; school culture and leadership; higher order thinking, critical thinking, or problem solving; economic competitiveness; and…

This article suggests that, because a hostile environment is associated with the development of mental and behavioral disorders, a restructuring of the schools to incorporate ongoing nurturing and academic training of younger students by older students would develop important psychological skills and thereby prevent mental and behavioral…

Advises would-be reformers to envision what reformed schools should look like before advocating their pet changes. Most reformers fail to connect their proposals with their goals. As the 10 "equal opportunity" reform fantasies show, rhetoric alone is useless. Basic condition preventing significant school change is public resistance.…

Explores community service learning as a way of revitalizing schools while integrating students into life in their communities. Service learning needs to be more than a single activity so that students see it in more than school terms. Several examples of student service projects are given. (SLD)

Based on an educational consultant's experience with a Pacific Telesis Foundation school restructuring program, this article shows the importance of time and culture. Restructuring means formally rearranging time usage to allow schools to create and sustain an interactive culture and supporting infrastructure for improving student learning. To…

Ideas of the philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre are developed for application to education. The school implied by MacIntyre's philosophy emphasizes content, substance, virtue, the learning environment, and the learning process. In a pluralist society, a school of choice, rather than a common school, is preferable. (SLD)

Asserts that high turnover in educational administrative personnel, especially principals, necessitates that attention and resources be allocated to administrative staff development. Recommends peer coaching as a way for principals to help each other, and presents a model for implementing a staff-development program. (VWC)

A case study of district-level factors that enabled eight Ontario secondary schools to assume added administrative responsibilities found that after two years, district-level factors contributing to change were the actions of a steering committee, emerging professionalism in the teacher union, district history, individual personalities, and a…

The articles in the December 1997 "Educational Administration Quarterly" about replacing the American comprehensive high school lacked historical perspective. Despite contributors' efforts to dissociate them from such schools, certain "innovative" restructuring measures (community building, team teaching, and block scheduling) have historically…