Analyzes data about (Hong Kong) parents' and school personnel's perceptions on parental participation in varied school activities. Most school staff demonstrated unwelcome attitudes toward parent involvement; parents disliked being school managers. Both groups favored separate school-management responsibilities. A school-based management strategy…

Deliberately patterned on the recommendations of the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development, Hellgate Middle School (Montana) teaches practical skills to promote critical thinking, teamwork, and decision-making skills; uses computer-assisted learning to allow student exploration and individualized learning; includes an interdisciplinary…

Describes how two rural Colorado communities, threatened by the loss of their elementary schools, established a charter school based in two existing facilities. Discusses the benefits of local autonomy, the value of networking with other rural charter schools, the role of the community in school innovations, and emphases on staff development and…

This bibliography provides a recommended list of research and theoretical literature on school restructuring. Selected for practitioners, policy makers, and researchers, the literature is organized into five areas. Part I, "General References on School Restructuring," has sections on proposals for school reform (42 references); how…

Oregon's Educational Act for the 21st Century is a remarkably comprehensive and systematic approach to school reform. Relying on a broad partnership of business leaders, parents, teachers, and educational professionals, it calls for a shift in public attitudes, a focus on outcome-based evaluations, and efforts to ensure its compatibility with…

The process of school-empowerment ultimately may be intellectual: an awareness and understanding by schools as unique collective learning communities that new school structures, roles, and relationships are necessary in the first place. First, preliminary results from field studies of schools undergoing restructuring are used to show that school…

The Chicago (Illinois) School Reform Act of 1988 set in motion a chain of reform efforts that have been the subject of considerable study. The plan emphasizes returning control of the schools to parents and the community through school-based management and local school councils. This book reports on studies of the implementation of the reform…

This report answers questions that the Governors' Task Force on Education raised in their 1993 report "The Debate on Opportunity-to-Learn Standards." To assist states as they contemplate how to link school finance with the goals of education reform, the National Governors' Association invited six experts on various aspects of school finance and…

This paper discusses distinguishing features of site-based management, theories supporting site-based management, examples of current practices, and special education implications. Part I presents issues concerning the implementation of site-based management as a restructuring process, including obstacles in implementing site-based management,…

This book provides central-office administrators with detailed processes of evaluation and assessment designed to improve upon the deficiencies in the current decentralized grants system. It is designed to help the administrator discern what district support functions are necessary to ensure that legal, ethical, and financial grant requirements…

Using its Academic Excellence Indicator System, Texas has labeled some schools as low performers, giving them a "Priority One" rating for improvement. Principals of low-performing campuses were interviewed to assess the condition of these campuses as communities of learners working to remove the Priority One label. All of the 6 subject…

This study was conducted to identify the ways that superintendents in rural school districts deal successfully with restructuring. The analysis is based on interviews with superintendents and principals in four rural districts. The districts, in Texas and Oklahoma, were selected especially for their successful restructuring programs. The two Texas…

As part of an ongoing effort to monitor the desegregation implementation of the Chicago (Illinois) Public Schools, a study was done to evaluate the participation of Core Planning Teams (CPTs) in 28 Phase II schools in the CANAL training project at the beginning of the third year of Project CANAL in the fall of 1990. Project CANAL provided five…

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…

In 1993 the New Jersey Department of Education documented a range of criminal and unethical conduct in the Newark public schools, and state investigators found major deficiencies in administration, educational programs, and finance. In 1995, the courts ordered the state takeover of the Newark school district. This report, by the State District…