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,…

"Restructuring" is a term whose meaning varies according to which group is using it. National political leaders often use the term in reference to public school choice. At state and district levels, restructuring is often associated with pushing decision making authority to the local level. Leaders in teachers' unions call restructuring…

Court and legislative challenges and financial crisis have hampered the first years of implementation of the Chicago (Illinois) School Reform Act of 1988. At the local level, school councils performed variously. Overall, evaluation of the act's success or failure will be conducted at the local level in individual schools. (JB)

Effective strategies for developing early childhood centers in public schools are discussed in this paper, which draws from a research-based literature search and intensive case studies of six Northwest sites. The sites represent a range of rural, suburban, and urban programs; large and small schools; and a variety of program features. The sites…

A review of the literature on school reform and successful restructuring efforts, with a focus on the decentralization of the Chicago public school system, is the purpose of this paper. Under new legislation, the Chicago Board of Education will be disbanded to encourage citizen control of schools, and will be replaced by a system of individual…