In Minnesota, imperial forces would implement a controlling, if well-intentioned system designed to make teachers and students conform to standards not of their choosing. Based on outcome-based education precepts, the proposed reform ideas are retreads of tried and untrue conservative concepts with a history of failure. When minimum expectations…

The Thomas Jefferson Center for Educational Design at the University of Virginia, with associates representing architecture, business, education, engineering, sociology, and technology, wants to redesign both schools and schooling. The goal is to raise standards without destroying hope, promote responsibility without sacrificing safety, expand…

An English teacher who taught two years at a racially and economically diverse high school reflects on unintentional forms of racism hiding behind her hard-working colleagues' standard practices. Examples include underrepresentation of black authors in the curriculum, lack of faculty diversity, and a persistently "white" school ethos.…

An administrator/former teacher ponders difficulties of living in two cultures: a professional world that respects her degrees and credentials and a Latina world that questions pursuit of the "American dream." Although she used her American voice to coax a Latina student back to school, she sympathized with the mother's family-centered aspirations…

Describes how to plan and implement intergenerational programs that benefit both students and senior citizens. Seniors can be invited to discuss their hobbies or careers, provide firsthand accounts of historical events in social-studies classes, and work with students on biography or gardening projects. Senior volunteers can also serve as…

A six-year investigation of schoolwide action research shows that teachers were reluctant to collaborate outside their immediate grade or subject area and to open up their classrooms. Teachers relied on intuitive program-evaluation approaches and held differing definitions of action research. Schools making the most progress had the most technical…

Given only correlation coefficient, one cannot infer causality. This lesson has been lost on Secretary of Education Richard Riley, who recently intoned that "taking rigorous mathematics courses ... early in secondary schools is a gateway to college and future employment." Students taking such classes have probably already been identified as…

Summarizes a complex case involving a reopened Minnesota elementary school serving children of the Brethren, a religious group that had earlier bought the school. Although no religious instruction occurred there, two taxpayers successfully sued the district. The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed this decision, noting the secular nature of…

Provides background information on the Hudson Institute's "Charter Schools in Action" project that studied 50 charter schools in 10 states. Examines innovative ways charter schools organize and support themselves, and presents five lessons from the charter-school movement. Public schools would benefit by becoming more consumer-oriented, diverse,…

Charter schools are challenged to find appropriate, inexpensive assessment measures, accommodate special-education students, discover effective governance models, organize learning and teaching effectively, and attract diverse students. External challenges include studying effects of multiple sponsorships, weak charter laws, and involvement of…

Evidence from the Boston Renaissance Charter School suggests that the Edison Project is struggling fitfully to learn school management. Reliance on suspension and physical restraints demonstrates Edison Project's lack of experience with inner-city children. Test scores are up, but faculty are warring over school mission, teachers are struggling to…

An obsolete, unworkable approach to achieving high standards is top-down dictation of goals and minimal staff compliance. A constructivist change strategy is based on collaboration. It is an action research and development process enabling everyone to understand the problem, reach agreement on goals, and share responsibility for implementing…

Based on the author's experience with the Atlas Community Project, this article identifies six different types of knowledge needed to mount a comprehensive reform effort: technical, resource, local, process, strategic, and organizational. Efforts to promote comprehensive changes do not necessarily make the reform processes markedly more successful…

Discusses case studies of the United States, Germany, and Japan included in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). Highlights national standards, teacher training and working conditions, attitudes toward dealing with ability differences, and the place of school in adolescents' lives. Compared to Japanese and German…

Active learning modules offer secondary students the opportunity to participate in the excitement of invention before getting "turned off" by the heavy course loads required of majors in science and technology. Instead of slogging through controlled, predictable lab exercises, students can become active producers by working collaboratively on…