When Canada signed the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990, all government levels became responsible for adopting and implementing a set of entitlements considered too radical for Americans. Critics claim the Convention subverts absolute parental and institutional authority over children. Implementation problems and progress are…

According to Thomas Stewart's book, intellectual capital comprises three broad categories: human, structural, and customer. Structural, or organizational capital, is knowledge that does not leave at night (with workers, or human capital). Developing a "best practices" database using Lotus Notes software would preserve and access schools'…

The Annenberg Institute for School Reform recently invited three distinguished educators (a superintendent, principal, and teacher leader) to Providence, Rhode Island, to reflect on the relationship between leadership and student achievement. Schools must tap into educators' training backgrounds; conversations at all levels must stress increasing…

The director of the Chicago Academy for School Leadership addresses the kind of leadership that would have kept her, a former English teacher, from failing a struggling African-American student 30 years ago. A culture of collegial support, mentoring/coaching, results-driven professional development, and instructional leadership would have helped.…

In Boston schools, change coaches and content coaches are offering principals and teachers the kind of professional development that research deems most effective: ongoing, in school, high-quality, and focused on instruction and teacher cooperation. To succeed, coaches must be (unrecognized) leaders who unobtrusively foster teacher leadership.…

Faculties must pass through several stages when becoming learning organizations: the honeymoon, conflict, confusion, messy, scary, and mature-group stages. Mature school communities have learned to view power differently, make learning more meaningful for students, and model a just and democratic society. Consensus is the starting point. (MLH)

A former superintendent explains the value of teamwork for solving problems involving bus passes, budgets, and faculty attrition. His continuous-quality-improvement initiatives sparked creative impulses while underscoring the importance of redesigning work procedures and giving people the time and encouragement to be inventive. (MLH)

An evaluation of the Success for All reading program, based on Texas Assessment of Academic Achievement scores in 111 SFA schools, shows that these schools are closing the achievement gap between themselves and less impoverished schools in the state. Minority students' progress is especially remarkable. (Contains 19 references.) (MLH)

Reflecting on 43 interviews with eminent educational leaders from all backgrounds and political stripes, the author isolates five common characteristics: a bedrock belief in their work's usefulness, courage to swim upstream on behalf of their beliefs, possession of a social conscience, seriousness of purpose, and situational mastery. (MLH)

When administrators put their ideas into writing, they produce a durable public record. An administrator's paper trail should compliment rather than haunt its creator. Effective communicators treat writing as a reflective process that helps sharpen and clarify ideas and considers both audience and purpose. (Contains 17 references.) (MLH)

A recent survey of 50 prominent education journals advises would-be authors to use writing to achieve identified career goals, target two or three refereed journals, use time efficiently, communicate with editors, learn the format for reporting research, resubmit revised manuscripts, and use a straightforward writing style. (MLH)

Teachers and education professors suggest various nonfiction and fiction books for summer reading enjoyment, from Robert Putnam's "Bowling Alone," C.A. Bowers's "Let Them Eat Data," and Larry McMurtry's "Roads: Driving America's Great Highways" to Kent Hauf's "Plainsong, J.M. Coetzee's "Disgrace," and Michael Cunningham's "The Hours." (MLH)

Research says the school-improvement mechanisms favored by policymakers-more certification tests (like the Massachusetts Educator Certification Test that 59 percent of candidates failed in 1998), higher cut scores, and severe penalties for institutions not meeting pass rates-are unlikely to deliver increased accountability and better teachers.…

A teacher describes the frustrations of an intelligent, learning-disabled fourth-grader who cannot pass the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System despite standard academic accommodations. The teacher advocates development of alternative or "nonstandard" accommodations and tests that assess students' spatial, problem-solving, and other…

A high-school English teacher deplores barking-media sound bites of politicians pretending to resolve complex educational problems with one-dimensional "solutions." Highlighting specific classroom learning situations, he ponders three paradoxes: justice is not necessarily fair; freedom comes with limits; and clarity comes through ambiguity. (MLH)