On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, accelerating the collapse of an already disintegrating city public school system. Prior to the storm, almost two-thirds of New Orleans public school students attended failing schools, half dropped out, and fewer than one in five enrolled in college. The school system suffered severe…

Following his previous article in this journal on the centralisation of power in English education post the 1988 Education Reform Act ("The Era of Centralisation", "FORUM", 50[2], pp. 255-261), the author considers the apparent turn to school autonomy central to the Conservative Educational Revolution. He argues that the power…

State and district school leaders across the U.S. have long sought ways to create success for children attending schools where too many have failed for far too long. A new approach to solving this old problem is called "starting fresh." By beginning anew with the freedom to do things vastly different, a real opportunity is created to…

To date, eight states (Minnesota, California, Colorado, Georgia, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Mexico, and Wisconsin) have passed some type of charter school legislation. This report provides information on activities and legislation in these states regarding charter school formation, including the roles played by individual teachers and others as…

The United Kingdom (UK) system of public education and training has been fundamentally reformed over the last 15 years. The improvements were designed to raise the quality of the system through increased autonomy for schools, colleges, and universities; a strengthened framework of accountability; enhanced parental and student choice; a more…

Evander Childs High School and Morris High School are two of the largest and most challenged secondary schools in the Bronx. Despite decades of political handwringing, many attempts at school reform, an array of corporate and community partner programs, and efforts to recruit highly qualified faculties for the long term, many of the students in…

The nation's higher education community is watching, waiting with anticipation to see the outcome of Virginia's 2005 Restructured Higher Education Financial and Administrative Operations Act (Restructuring Act), which amounts to a significant renegotiation of the relationship between the Commonwealth of Virginia and its renowned public colleges…

This book argues that large American high schools have become obsolete and uses case studies of four new or restructured schools to show why smallness and distinctiveness are prerequisites for school reform. The large comprehensive high school developed as an economical means of providing a range of "tracks," from practical subjects for future…

The conference papers examine higher education reforms in the countries of Eastern and Central Europe from several research perspectives: political, economic, pedagogical, and sociological. Papers are organized in three sections: Higher Education Policies and Institutional Change; Central European Higher Education in Transition; and Higher…

Discusses one example of successful school restructuring by means of an examination of California's Bowling Green Elementary School. Key contributing elements discussed are having a low student-to-teacher ratio; using integrated thematic instruction; developing an efficacy approach; mastering adopted standards; and developing site-based decision…