Explores "second-wave" reform efforts aimed at restructuring schools and reshaping teacher roles to permit greater autonomy, responsibility, and status. As better working conditions increase teacher satisfaction, education will compete more favorably with other professions as a career choice. Includes 16 references. (MLH)

Examines current demographic projections in terms of five major concepts (fertility, age, region, race, and immigration) and analyzes their impact on tomorrow's schools. Beset with a declining birthrate, an aging population, and increasing numbers of poor and minority students, schools' major responsibility is to create winners and new recruits to…

Notes the schools' sorry record at promoting the achievement and participation of Black, Hispanic, and poor children--the sector providing most of tomorrow's students. Explores misconceptions about learning and individual differences, condemns grouping and tracking processes for restricting students' access to knowledge, and suggests alternative…

Describes a Fall 1984 cooperative learning project at a Phoenix, Arizona, junior high school involving three sections of mixed-ability student groupings in reading, English, and math. At year's end, all academic levels (particularly remedial students) in the mixed-ability classes fared better than their counterparts in the tracked classes. By…

To understand schools from insiders' perspectives, this study shadowed 19 high school students and 8 teachers in all of their classes for two weeks. Given schools' problematic features (structural fragmentation, teacher isolation, emphasis on intrinsic rewards, and school-relevant learning) and teachers' weak sense of school ownership, the article…

This interview explores the pedagogical views of Ted Sizer, author of "Horace's Compromise," the report of a five-year study of adolescent education. Sizer insists that high schools can do better by doing less and by challenging students to develop intellectually and solve problems on their own. General education teachers learn valuable strategies…

Describes an interdisciplinary pilot program for ninth graders at Bronxville (New York) High School using three teachers (representing social studies, English, and art) to teach an ancient history unit. The varied learning activities were based on the Coalition for Essential Schools' driving forces: personalization, the student as worker,…

After many unsuccessful attempts to improve education, it's time to focus on people, not methods, and encourage local experimentation rather than top-down reforms. Promising approaches include concentrating on changing people's beliefs, emphasizing process instead of preconceived outcomes, beginning with local problems, eliminating reform…

In "Time for Results" (1986), the nation's governors announced a new education reform agenda that develops and extends states' recent initiatives. This article discusses governors' progress since 1986, focusing on their Reconstruction of Schools Project to manage consultation, information sharing, and assistance to states. (MLH)

Discusses Peter Drucker's recommendations in "The Age of Discontinuity" (1969) concerning the decline of manual work, the ascendancy of knowledge work, and the relationship between economic stability and an educated, productive work force. Applies Drucker's principles to the movement to restructure schools, which aims to make line workers…

Indiana spent more than $100 million in past three years on Prime Time, program to reduce class size in the primary grades. Data show that in classrooms with 18 to 22 students, the atmosphere is less hectic, teacher morale is higher, instruction is more individualized, and students (particularly those at risk) are better achievers. Includes five…

By reorganizing all aspects of schooling, Johnson City (New York) schools have raised standards and academic achievement in a predominantly lower middle class factory town. Test scores and five "exit behaviors" (high self-esteem, high cognitive ability, good problem-solving and communication skills, self-directed learning behavior, and concern for…

Argues that the September-June school calendar, based on economic rather than educational considerations, has outlived its usefulness. Recommends designing a less disruptive schedule to suit children's continuous learning needs, presents several year-round options, and summarizes the benefits of uninterrupted learning. (MLH)

As head of Brazil's literacy campaign, educator Paulo Freire discovered that overwhelming student apathy required restructuring his values toward empowering instead of controlling students. For education to be linked to progress at an individual level, curriculum must emanate partly from the learners' lives. Includes five references. (MLH)

Describes two exploratory projects involving a fifth-grade civics class in Connecticut and an eighth-grade English class in Vermont. Using techniques such as small-group inteviews, situational pictures, learning logs, and assessment measures, researchers determined that what students learn often bears little resemblance to the "taught" curriculum.…