Describes a plan for a professional development program in educational systems design to prepare facilitators in educational change and restructuring efforts. Highlights include roles in the change process; values and criteria for design; change strategies; emotional stages; attitudinal roadblocks; and needed competencies and skills, including…

Argues that the successes of some urban school districts must be organized into a powerful system that delivers excellence and equity for all school children. This objective can be furthered through the addition of controlled choice to the public-education reform agenda. Controlled choice is within-district public-school choice. (SLD)

This article presents new systems produced by systemic change. First is Systemic Changes in the Chugach School District by Wendy Battino and Jo Clem. Second is Systemic Changes in Public Schools through Brain-Based Learning by Renate N. Caine. Third is A Vision of an Information-Age Educational System by Charles M. Reigeluth. Fourth is Systemic…

The Comprehensive Evaluation System (CES), a comprehensive computer program system designed for the implementation of statewide standards for all schools and school systems in Georgia, is described. The system, mandated by state reform legislation, was conceived as a set of standards ranging from legal adherence through standards of excellent…

In 1970 the Commission for Educational Reform, established by Peru's revolutionary government, published its General Report giving a detailed analysis of the old system's shortcomings, a statement of the philosophical principles which should guide any alternative system, and a description of the form which such an alternative pattern might take.…

A project was developed to improve vocational administrators' program management skills through diffusion of the cost-effectiveness analysis system which was developed at Indiana University-Bloomington. Specific objectives were (1) to summarize the cost-effectiveness analysis system, (2) to develop a conceptual framework for the system's diffusion…

Persuaded that quality teaching is the most important way to raise student achievement, the new leadership of the San Diego, California schools initiated a focused set of instructional reforms to "jolt" the system from bottom to top beginning in 1998. Interviews of educators at all levels of the system, district-wide surveys of…

Piecemeal change to improve schooling is an approach that at its worst does more harm than good, and at its best is limited to creating pockets of good within school districts. When it comes to improving schooling in a district, however, creating pockets of good isn't good enough. Whole school systems need to be improved. This article focuses on…

The decline in Federal funding for state-provided social services during the 1980s triggered a transformation in the states' roles in family policymaking. This booklet documents four state initiatives designed to bring about systems change: (1) Healthy Start (California); (2) the Governor's Families and Children Initiative (Colorado); (3) the…

The drive for systemic reform in education reflects a widespread hunger in all sectors of society to make sense of the whole, as is shown in the increasing recognition of people in organizations of the interrelatedness of the organizations' parts. However, many attempts at systemic reform are hampered by the lack of a common view of what an…

The major objective of this study was to examine and describe how a large urban school system (the School District of Philadelphia) responds to crisis generated by student unrest. The purpose was to test the notion that crisis, under certain management conditions, may result in positive change or development. The procedure consisted of two parts.…

This paper explores the development of a set of indicators devoted exclusively to the school to work transition. The indicators described are directed at monitoring a geographical area as a whole, whether it is the nation, state, or a local community. Developing a set of indicators is linked to making judgments about the impact we expect new…

This report examines twenty-three schools in their first year of participation in a California-State-sponsored restructuring initiative called Every Student Succeeds (ESS). Four areas of restructuring are reviewed: (1) curriculum and instruction; (2) governance; (3) professional development of teachers; and (4) coordination of community resources.…

A state educational indicator system being developed by the Pennsylvania Educational Policy Studies (PEPS) project at the University of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) is described. The extensive database that has been established as part of the PEPS project includes thousands of variables that are descriptive of the 500 Pennsylvania school districts.…

This paper focuses on new ways of viewing the educational system by affecting change via small, initial adjustments. A number of fundamental ideas are presented that could be implemented by states, either individually or collectively, to change current educational systems into Information Age systems. Taking the cue from Chaos Theory, which states…