Transformational change means changing teachers' and principals' conceptions of schools and classrooms. This is cultural work that counteracts a 200-year-old cultural system of economic and social privilege. Educators must discover how to create transformational, culture-building leaders in schools. Schools should regard ethnicity, cultural…

Excoriates an article by Ralph Parish and Frank Aquila in the same "Kappan" issue, particularly the authors' faulty comparisons of 1980s reforms with failed 1970s experiments, their misrepresentation of the "social reproduction" framework, and their smug superiority regarding necessity for change. Some educators may have good reasons for opposing…

Ralph Parish and Frank Aquila's article in the same "Kappan" issue has admirable equity concerns but offers little advice for inner-city principals trying to convince their staffs that all children can and should learn at high levels. Getting more and more students to a solid competency level is a challenge that will involve expert teamwork and…

Higher education's presence in school reform is limited because many university people equate reform with lowered standards and instrumental knowledge, view portfolios as complicating the admissions process, and have low expectations for the secondary school system. Oregon's Proficiency-based Admission Standards System (PASS) is a state-mandated…

Evaluates a set of videotaped explanation- and procedure-based assessment activities that challenge high school students to apply scientific concepts to solving problems. Students frequently relied on description when asked for explanation and used revision to confirm their original prediction. The solution may be to relate instruction to context…

The California Learning Assessment System (CLAS) was developed in 1991 to align the state's testing system to curriculum content and improve measurement of student, school, and district performance. CLAS was discontinued because of tension between political and technical factors, key stakeholders' divergent priorities and goals, and virulent…

Competitive grading stresses judging over learning. Assigning competitive grades adversely affects teachers by turning them into students' opponents, justifying inadequate teaching methods, trivializing course content, encouraging evaluation methods that misdirect and inhibit student learning, and rewarding teachers for punishing students. High…

In 1973, the founding administrator of a Long Island high school proposed adoption of a student advisory system, team teaching in the humanities, and no academic department chairs. Convinced that having chairs diminished teachers' stature, this principal successfully encouraged teachers to work together to develop curriculum, prepare budgets, hire…

John Lee's little-known 1984 study "Tomorrow's Teachers" shows that potential teachers' grade-point averages during 1974-83 did not decline or differ from other majors' GPAs. A 1996 UCLA study documents resistance to outcomes-based education at 10 schools. Well-educated parents of former high-track students pressured administrators to resegregate…

The difference between charity and change provides an important conceptual distinction for those analyzing service-learning curricula and learning objectives. In the moral domain, service-learning activities tend toward giving or caring; in the political domain, such activities can embrace either civic duty or social reconstruction; in the…

Student workshops can complement coursework in the academic disciplines and provide field training for public health, social work, urban planning, and other professions. This article describes three community-planning workshops for college students: a community planning workshop in rural east central Illinois, a neighborhood revitalization project…

For over a century, American education's mission has centered on preparing future workers to enter the marketplace. Just as the Industrial Age ended slave labor, the Information Age will end mass wage labor, freeing up millions for shortened work weeks and/or work in the civil society or nonprofit sector. Service learning helps by creating social…

"Kappan" asked 75 "young education leaders" of 1980 to answer some open-ended questions regarding education's purpose and future direction. The 42 respondents identified knowing, thinking, and problem solving as education's major purpose, followed by personal development and economic competence. Respondents felt integration of technology was the…

During the early 1970s, over 150 school districts and several states contracted with private companies to deliver instruction, and the Nixon Administration initiated a vast privatization field experiment in Texarkana. None of these performance contracting experiments significantly improved instruction. Instead, they raised issues of staffing,…

The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education's strong movement to strengthen accreditation appears to have generated the same kinds of criticism and condemnation as before the redesign. However, results of interviews with 32 teacher education and NCATE leaders show overwhelming support for NCATE. Schools, colleges, and departments…