To avoid microcomputer software copyright infringement, administrators must be aware of the law, read the software agreements, maintain good records, submit all software registration cards, provide secure storage, post warnings, be consistent when establishing and enforcing policies, consider a site license, and ensure the legality of currently…

To help transfer students adjust more readily to new schools, several activities are advised, including a guided buddy system, a counseling plan, and teacher introductions--all based on information gleaned from a new student checklist. (MLH)

In 1988-89, six states (Arkansas, Delaware, Illinois, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island) made a five-year commitment to RE:Learning, a school development project aimed at helping students use their minds well. The key to systemwide change is shifting state expectations and waiving government policies hindering reform. (MLH)

Delaware's early experience with the RE:Learning project affirms the necessity of simultaneous top-down and bottom-up reform efforts. Other critical ingredients include awareness of the critical need for change and strong incentives for bucking the status quo. Resistant teacher and administrator mindsets must also be transformed. (MLH)

As a site-based, participatory management project being implemented in 15 schools throughout Delaware, RE:Learning is a natural extension of the collegial relationships established over the past 10 years between local schools and districts and the State Department of Public Instruction. Success hinges on a periodic school review process and a…

The Delaware RE:Learning project is based on Theodore Sizer's work with the Coalition of Essential Schools and is supported by the Education Commission of the States. RE:Learning principles include building a new vision of education, organizing around student learning, creating new working relationships, developing coherence and meaning, and…

For teachers at Laurel (Delaware) Central Middle School, the old, dull routine of lecturing docile children has become an exciting exercise in active teaching and learning. Although RE:Learning has pushed nurturing ahead of intellectual skill development, more students are actively engaged in learning. Teacher attitudes toward building…

One of the most telling characteristics of U.S. schools is professional isolation. On their way to visit a RE:Learning School in Illinois, a junior high school principal and three teachers begrudged the time and money invested in the trip. On the way back, they wondered how long educators could keep going without collegial support from networking.…

The techniques of program evaluation parallel the historian's methods, which usually consist of mining both qualitative and quantitative sources. Test scores, questionnaires, and unobtrusive measures provide good quantitative data, whereas interviews supply important qualitative information. Researcher involvement in the project being assessed can…

Highlights the initial restructuring efforts begun by a Pennsylvania high school participating in the Coalition of Essential Schools. After several years of discussion, the staff undertook summer inservice training featuring a reading project, an ideal/reality exercise, a shadowing project, and a school visitation process. Choosing an…

In this interview, Arthur E. Wise, teacher reform advocate, discusses the status of educational reform, the impact of the national goals, and the principal's role in implementing change. School-based management complicates the principal's role, as principals must become expert team-builders and facilitators. The national education goals are…

Principals should focus curriculum development around specific questions mirroring journalistic who-what-where-why considerations. This means striving to clarify definitions, rationale and philosophy, policy origins, procedures, temporal arrangements, learning sites, and value. For example, schools have multiple curriculum philosophies that…

The principal is uniquely positioned to help teachers plan for instruction, especially in the areas of student evaluation and grading. One approach is conducting inservice programs to promote an evaluation-based model of teacher planning incorporating both the objectives- and activities-based planning models. Teachers can then match assessment…

To influence lasting change in schools, principals must study general research findings, understand people's reactions to change and the limitations of effective schools research, examine sources of change, work to develop an effective leadership style, analyze structures affecting change, use outside facilitators, review and select planning…

Instead of becoming a launching pad for tomorrow, schooling must be worthwhile for today. Learning to learn must overshadow the acquisition of methods, skills, and knowledge. Educators must conscientiously avoid programs that accommodate the masses at the expense of individuals. Principals must exercise influence to replace memorization and rote…