This booklet discusses the collective power of collaboration among the three agencies that compose the Corporation for National Service (AmeriCorps, Learn and Serve America, and the National Senior Service Corps) and introduces the reader to a process of collaboration intended to strengthen existing services and to create new and higher-quality…

Efforts to change the role of principals over the past 30 years typically reflect a leader-centrist perspective of schools illustrated by the metaphors of a marching band or the slightly less hierarchical classical orchestra. In these conceptual systems, policy (score) is generated (composed) by policymaking bodies (composers) with principals…

This book demonstrates how classroom teachers can use cooperative learning techniques for lesson planning and classroom management. It emphasizes that cooperation among students is powerful, and it notes that just because students are in a group does not mean that they are cooperating. Part 1, "Getting Started with Cooperative Learning," includes…

This paper summarizes the first 2 years of a school improvement effort in a low-performing rural school district in southern Virginia that involved developing a balanced K-12 curriculum aligned with the state's standards of learning. Project evaluation focused on changes in the school environment and in teaching and learning that resulted from the…

Offers four themes in the scaffolding of a critical education that advance grassroots activism in learning communities of praxis (scale, ownership, connection, and enterprise). Presents an example of a youth development project that affirms democracy via shared decision making, group motivation, self-esteem, and agenda setting opportunities…

Accelerated schools strive to bring at-risk students into the educational mainstream and perform at grade level through acceleration rather than remediation. Describes four steps to initiate the accelerated process and how a Texas middle school involved all members of the school community in implementing the first two steps, taking stock and…

An Aleut community leader from the Pribilof Islands (Alaska) reflects on what he learned from the economic crisis that threatened the viability of his community during the 1980s. He suggests that the spiritual healing of the individual is central to the healing of the whole community, elimination of conflict, and fulfillment of any vision for the…

The paper examines how shared decision making can help reframe the purpose of social foundations in teacher education, arguing that it bridges the gap between teacher as decision maker and the content of foundational studies. Four studies that represent different levels of educational decision making are highlighted. (SM)

A sixth-grade social studies teacher examined how to give her students more autonomy. By teaching them how to function in cooperative learning environments, the teacher noticed significant improvements in student-teacher interaction, a lessening of disciplinary problems, and a strengthening of individual student leadership. (Author/SM)

A study examining the educational experiences of Aboriginal students surveyed educators, service providers, and Indigenous residents in a rural South Australian Aboriginal community. Findings indicated a lack of cross-cultural communication. Recommendations revolve around equalizing power differentials between schools and community, and include…

Describes the increasing difficulty of community colleges to attract and train new leaders, along with the intensifying trend of turmoil within institutional governance. The Community College Leadership Development Initiatives (CCLDI) group was formed to assist in the resolution of these problematic trends through the strengthening of college…

Posits a skeptical critique of the early claims of increased and efficient citizen participation in government due to information technology. Recent experiments have been costly and only marginally successful. Further research suggests that advanced information technology will have little effect on voter apathy. (MJP)

Examines the need for teacher reflection as schools involve teachers in management and governance, describing efforts at social self-reflection in preservice and inservice education. Includes a case study where social self-reflection highlights a successful match between a new teacher's personal integrity and her professional setting. Considers…

Proposed educational reforms, outlined in Australia's Quality of Education Review Committee report, call for greater quality and relevance in schooling to respond to technological change. This article argues that the proposed responses will produce antidemocratic elitist schools which are characterized by a tightly structured curriculum and…

Describes student-directed class model at Hampshire College, Massachusetts. Describes students' role as planning syllabus, regulating commitment, facilitating sessions, and evaluating course. Describes teacher's role as balancing intervention with non-involvement. Recommends model as way of integrating experiential learning into mainstream…