This chapter is dealing with transitions in the governing of schooling in Sweden. Referring to uses of different dominating governing models, four periods were identified since the WW2, first a centralizing reformation period (1950-1980), followed by decentralizing realization period (1980-1990), and then a deregulating restructuration period…

The rise of the managerialist university, in terms of a shift towards supposed corporate forms of governance in universities, associated also with greater competition between universities, has been the subject of considerable controversy. Dissent with respect to these developments has commonly appealed to the notion of the university as a special…

Persistently low-achieving public schools around the country have received $5.8 billion from the federal School Improvement Grant (SIG) program, in addition to districts and state funds, and other supplementary federal funds. Despite all of these sources of funding, most of the schools receiving them have failed to make a dramatic difference in…

What to do about persistently low-performing schools is a pressing challenge for policymakers and educators across the nation. Schools that fail to make "adequate yearly progress" (AYP) for five consecutive years under No Child Left Behind (NCLB) must be "restructured". The 3,500 schools in the United States currently in…

This publication focuses on professional development, a key element of school reform. In order to improve instruction and learning, schools need to increase the capacity of teachers to promote academic excellence in their classrooms. As part of their school and district plans, educators need to include professional development for teachers that is…

The superintendent, a central-office supervisor, the principal, and an external consultant began discussions to address the specific needs of an elementary school in Scottsboro, Alabama. The process involved completing a pre-assessment and feasibility study, developing and introducing a staff-development change model, creating an action plan,…

School leaders should use the charter-school movement as an opportunity to involve all community members in designing all schools and changing schooling's managerial structure. The Advocacy Design Center process is a community-building strategy based on democratic values and research-based models. The idea is to create vital, inquiry-based schools…

A conceptual frame is offered for the investigation of issues related to teacher participation in educational governance and teacher evaluation. In a restructured school system both teachers and schools would seek evaluation, not in response to demands for accountability, but as a step toward performance improvement. (SLD)

A systems design framework for the transformation of education is presented in this paper. A systems approach views education as a system of interdependent problems and the design process as one of four parts of organizational inquiry. A framework for educational design is presented, which is composed of three dimensions--focus for change, scope…

The demand for educational reform has reopened several debates concerning fundamental aspects of education. Three of these debates--the goals of education, school governance structures, and the locus of control for reform--are linked to teacher participation. This paper suggests that education's goals could best be addressed by action research…

The central thesis of this book is that the developmental conception of democracy provides the theoretical foundation for an alternative model of school governance devoted not to efficient integration of students into a hierarchical labor force, but to development as unique human beings. This will necessitate an organizational structure that…

This study was designed to fill the "implementation measurement" gap. A methodology to quantitatively measure the level of Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) implementation that can be used across a variety of CSR models was developed, and then applied to measure actual implementation of four different CSR models in a large number of schools. The…

This book presents nine papers about changing the way public higher education is governed. After providing an overview of the recent history of governance restructuring or renewal in public higher education in the United States, the book focuses on restructuring in five states: North Dakota, Massachusetts, Alaska, Maryland, and Minnesota. Part 1…