Throughout the history of education different conceptions have been developed about the role and the function that education has in society as a whole. Such conceptions have been constructed around different discourses that show underlying social conflicts. The different educational practices acquire their legitimacy through such discourses, which…

Small learning communities, an initiative to transform large struggling comprehensive high schools into smaller autonomous schools, are being empirically examined in the field of education to assess if transformation is actually occurring as seen by positive outcomes, such as increased academic achievement. There is an absence of literature on…

Adapted from a presentation given at the National Conference in Cooperative Vocational Education, Minneapolis, Minn., February 26, 1969.

This report presents the results of a 5-year study conducted by governors and other state and local policymakers on education reform. It is intended for a general audience and offers advice on what it takes to implement comprehensive school reforms. The document elaborates on five lessons learned in implementing comprehensive school reform: (1)…

Comprehensive school reform involves changes in every aspect of school operations, from classroom instruction to school governance. Some schools develop their own reform approach from within. Others seek assistance from without, particularly from organizations that have developed coherent, research-based approaches, or school-reform models. For…

This paper provides data on the Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration (CSRD) program in the mid-continent region. Started in 1998 and part of the Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning and Model Developers Plan, the CSRD program aims to increase student achievement by assisting schools across the country to implement successful,…

This catalog describes 44 school-reform models. It was prepared for the U.S. Department of Education in direct response to the Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration program. The catalog's purpose is to aid schools, school districts, and states as they investigate external models that can be incorporated into comprehensive school-reform…

This addendum, developed at the request of the U.S. Department of Education, provides information to schools, school districts, states, and others as they plan and implement comprehensive school-reform programs under the Obey-Porter Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration (CSRD) program. The CSRD legislation encourages schools to consider…

The "one-size-fits-all" approach to teaching and program delivery is indefensible. Minnesota has enacted a law specifying standards of knowledge and skills that high school students must demonstrate to qualify for a diploma via multiple pathways. All pathway programs (classical, postsecondary, interactive-technology evening school,…

This article discusses some of the various school-reform strategies that have been implemented since the publication of A Nation at Risk. It opens with an examination of standards-based accountability and some of the concerns and objections surrounding this movement. It asks whether standards are achieving their purpose, looks at the role of state…

This newsletter summarizes the work of a committee, set up by the Ministry of Education, which sought to define the objectives and the methods of student evaluation and to draw up a proposal for reforming and standardizing student evaluation in the comprehensive and the secondary school. Deficiencies of current methods of student evaluation are…

Early in the 20th century, vocational education was a concern of educators in the United States as schools struggled to meet labor force needs during the shift from an agrarian to an industrial economic base. A 1914 Congress-authorized commission studied whether federal aid to vocational education was warranted. Charles Prosser, a student of…

Reflections on a year-long demonstration project infusing the principles and practices of career education throughout the divisions and departments of a major State university are presented in this document for use in institutional renewal in higher education along the lines of the education-work problem. Institutional renewal is discussed in…