As American schools increasingly are called on to ensure students have the skills necessary to succeed in the 21st century, school districts nationwide are responding with a renewed interest in systemic change. The revived attention notwithstanding, educators, policymakers and the public still misunderstand the true meaning of systemic change in…

Describes efforts by Bronx Community College, sponsored by the Ford Foundation, to establish a junior college system in South Africa. The project is working with the faculties of 56 training institutes to develop core competencies and to give participants the kind of credentials they can take from one area of the educational sector to another.…

The idea of "capacity" is particularly important in the reform of educational systems because the system can be both the initiator and the subject of change. In fact, the requirement for capacity is present at all levels of the system in systemic reform. In educational change, four types of capacity are generally considered: (1) human…

Outlines implications of educational reform initiatives for psychologists and discusses the roles they can play in the process of educational reform. The experience of Kentucky with its Kentucky Educational Reform Act serves as an example of the systemic education reform efforts many states are undertaking and illustrates the importance of…

In the early 1990s, the Finnish government embarked on a strategy to remold Finland into a knowledge society. A key element in this strategy was to raise the knowledge and skill levels of the population by doubling higher education enrollments by the end of the century. Recognizing that it would be neither affordable nor desirable to double…

Efforts to make substantial and substantive improvements related to mental health in schools and student/learning supports requires much more than implementing a few demonstrations. Improved approaches are only as good as a school district's ability to develop and institutionalize them equitably in all its schools. This process often is called…

This document presents the lessons of Jobs for the Future's Benchmark Communities Initiative (BCI), a 5-year systemic educational reform initiative launched in 1994 in five communities. Before joining the BCI, the five Benchmark communities had each begun a school-to-career effort. Five key findings from the BCI are outlined: (1) students engaged…

Discussion of educational systems design focuses on a framework for exploring the scope of design options to help transform the existing educational system. Staying within the existing system, adjusting the boundaries by adding specific additional issues, and choosing the community or society as the overall context are considered. (LRW)

Describes the Slovenian system of higher education and the country's new effort to establish an improved system. A draft plan for introducing a system of quality assurance into the relatively small existing system has been developed based on foreign experience, with attention to Slovenian national needs. Evaluation will be an integral part of the…

Proposes a systemically valid testing system that induces curricular and instructional changes in education systems to foster the development of the cognitive traits that tests are designed to measure. Analyzes test characteristics and outlines the principles of a systemically valid testing system. (FMW)

American indicator systems of educational accountability generally focus on student outcomes. The next generation of indicator systems must address wider issues, such as social context and values, curriculum assessment, structure of schooling, and individual student differences. Administrative, technical, political, and financial issues in…

Within the last decade, the neighboring states of Kentucky and West Virginia have realized the need for--and have acted upon--school reform measures in their educational systems. This document compares and contrasts the two states' efforts to restructure their school systems. Both Kentucky and West Virginia initiated their respective reform…

Educational change is a process occurring through time, a systemic and dynamic phenomenon in which every action leads to reactions in related areas of the system, and a multidimensional phenomenon requiring examination from the perspective of several disciplines. The success of an innovation depends on how the change process is managed, how the…

Describes the systems approach (the Information-Based School Development Project) used by a large education system in Australia for school review and development, involving a research and a service component to help schools identify, obtain, and organize information they need for their own decision-making. Relates two case studies. (SR)

Examines the issue of community involvement in reformulating educational systems. Historical perspectives on community involvement in schools are reviewed; the roles of community members in educational settings and in educational systems design settings are discussed; and experiences from fieldwork observing community participation are related.…