Examines systemic reform development from the perspective of local participants in nine states. Implementation varies with local technical capacity. State systemic reform agendas are frequently viewed as incompatible with pressing local issues. The most frequently criticized aspect of systemic reform is apparent lack of connection between state…

Documents local variability in response to state-mandated reform in Maryland and illustrates the challenges of implementing centralized policy as an educational improvement tool. Discusses a longitudinal project exploring student and staff experience at five diverse high schools. Advises improvement-minded state-level policymakers to be more…

Urban schools tend to be bureaucratic, politicized, and isolated from state-of-the-art practices and the knowledge-utilization loop. The articles in this special issue examine current and potential strategies for effective knowledge dissemination and utilization as a key intervention process. The idea is to stimulate rethinking and promote…

There's a wide discrepancy between the "state of the art" and the "state of practice" in education everywhere. Inadequate but continuing federal categorical programs are one example of this knowledge/practice gap. Recent Chapter 1 program revisions geared toward involving community agencies and making the total school program a resource for…

Current federally supported technical assistance priorities and operations are not well aligned with the school-improvement process. This article discusses technical assistance centers' organization, funding, and size; the topics they address; the recipients, gatekeepers, and trainers they work with; convening services provided; coordination…

For the past three years, the Center for School Improvement has collaborated with many Chicago elementary schools on an Urban School Development Initiative. This article discusses evolving understandings based on authors' work with member schools pursuing fundamental restructuring through literacy education and ponders the research university's…

Proposes a radical reorientation of American universities toward helping solve real-world problems--particularly those in a university's local community. Argues that such an orientation can be achieved through communal participatory action-research projects designed to advance general knowledge and human welfare. Describes a University of…

To develop schools as self-renewing learning organizations, we must ensure proper professional development and knowledge-sharing opportunities. Key strategies include implementing school-based, cooperatively planned staff development programs with effective training components; offering collaborative training experiences; maintaining high…

Although coordinated services for children are an exciting development, service organizations do not form partnerships easily. This article examines basic assumptions and questions surrounding knowledge dissemination and utilization in coordinated services; drawing facilitation strategies from ongoing projects in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, and…

Describes design and implementation of the outreach and dissemination approach used by the National Center on Education in the Inner Cities, with emphases on building on existing structures for information dissemination, training, and technical support for research utilization. Application of the Model of Outreach and Utilization was guided by two…

Society is not meeting the needs of most children in U.S. urban schools. Although the articles in this special "Educational Policy" issue are provocative, contributors fail to recognize the subjectivity of knowledge accumulation. They advocate tactics to reinforce existing power imbalances in society, rather than suggesting ways to circumvent them…

Examines educational reform as a systemic process. Views school districts as dynamic systems that use reforms to reinforce their equilibrium as institutional organizations. Institutionalization effectively blocks formal feedback to decision makers. Reforms exhibit an alternating pattern, resulting from a default feedback process reflecting…

Although U.S. public schools now possess 5.8 million computers, roughly one for every nine students, they are not widely used in classroom instruction. Industry leaders have neglected teachers' central role in instruction and have grossly oversimplified schools' complexities. Computers will become more commonplace when they are used to make…

Analyzes factors to consider when forging policy linkages among systemic reform, equity, and school finance reform. Discusses concepts of equity and adequacy and their relationship to school finance litigation. Proposes a policy-linkage model that illustrates connections among policy-making bodies, systemic reform initiatives, and various finance…

Compares the influence of policy frameworks guiding collaborative initiatives in a Kentucky elementary school and an Ontario (Canada) collegiate school, both participants in two larger longitudinal studies. Explores complex issues related to participants' professional service ethic and advocacy role. Despite institutional pressures for constrained…