This document consists of a teacher guide and a student guide to an educational simulation game that provides students with an opportunity to examine the relationship between humans and animals, and to explore the roles that animals play in daily life. The teaching technique employed is a student-centered process in which students work…

This book provides practical information about the complexity of school change, with an emphasis on the role of time and its impact, along with other variables, on the change process. The other interacting variables in school change include vision, history, leadership and power, the use of support and pressure, capacity building, consensual…

This paper presents a history of restructuring efforts undertaken since 1991 at one high school located in a predominantly white suburban community. Data were gathered through document analysis, interviews, and a faculty survey (to which 35 out of 63 teachers responded). Since the late 1980s, the school's student population declined and became…

This final report, in the form of an executive summary presents the findings of the Families in Action project, a 5-year effort to examine the experiences of parents and other members of families of children with emotional disorders as members of policy-related bodies. The project also addressed the development of strategies to enhance parent…

This paper presents findings of a study that examined the efforts of one Dade County, Florida, high school to use site-based management/shared decision making (SBM/SDM) over a 7-year period. The study examined participants' beliefs about the distribution of authority, the nature of work, and conceptions of learning and compared those beliefs with…

This paper presents findings of a study that described the existing nature of school-based management (SBM) structures and procedures associated with school-development planning in Western Australia. It also examined the impact of SBM on the curriculum and professional activities of teachers. Data were obtained through analysis of official policy…

This study sought to evaluate the implementation of a program to foster the inclusion of differently abled students into a regular elementary school classroom. The report is based on interviews with eight regular and two special education teachers, as well as the school principal, along with classroom materials and information on inclusion…

In 1992, Heartland Community College (HCC), in Illinois, was granted candidacy status for accreditation by the North Central Association (NCA). In 1994, the college decided to seek full accreditation to ensure its place in the local community, ensure federal funding, and to show that it had grown since candidacy and was ready to fulfill…

This paper presents the initial findings of a comprehensive 28-school multi-site case study, which sought to identify patterns in schools that are changing bureaucratic work patterns to those found in quality-management systems. The schools are located in Florida, Virginia, Minnesota, and Louisiana; all are led by principals who are trainers in…

A formal governance system was adopted by the Board of Trustees in April 1991 at Burlington County College in New Jersey after the Commission on Higher Education and the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools observed that it was lacking. The policy defines the path for maintaining a governance structure which fosters clear and timely…

A classroom presents the perfect opportunity for teachers and teacher educators to perpetuate the all-encompassing idea of democracy. A democratic classroom requires of all its participants that they welcome joint decision-making, be committed to a dynamic common good, have the necessary skills, be open to other points of view, be committed to…

Problem-based learning (PBL) has gained credibility and some use in institutions of higher education. This paper provides a brief conceptual discussion of PBL and the idea of "problem," and describes one learning model that incorporates PBL as a method for moving students to high levels of learning. The second portion of the paper describes one…

Recognizing the critical role of parent involvement for the success of their children in school, this report presents statistics which focus on various areas in which parents and schools can work together to develop partnerships. The report presents data collected from a survey of 810 public elementary schools serving kindergarten through grade 8.…

Site-based management is designed to bring decision making to the school level and involve all stakeholders in a process that will result ultimately in improved student outcomes. Enacted into law in June 1989, Hawaii's School/Community-Based Management Initiative (SCBM) is part of a national trend toward decentralizing decision making and…

This document describes the methodology used to carry out the Assessment of School-Based Management Study, which identified the conditions in schools that promote high performance through school-based management (SBM). The 3-year project, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI), began…