Educational Leadership articles from September 1993

Educational Leadership archives from September 1993

A consistent system.
September 1, 1993... Over the last two years ASCD has hosted four meetings of a consortium of school districts pioneering local use of performance assessment. In May we met in Edmonton, Alberta, hosted by the Edmonton Public Schools, the only Canadian district in...

Turning the system on its head. (need for reforming the existing educational system)(includes related interviewwith Marshall Smith, former education dean of Stanford University)
September 1, 1993... Efforts to improve American education are at an impasse. Some schools excel but many others struggle. Policymakers respond by introducing new policies and regulations aimed at "fixing" all schools, whether they need it or not. Some of the top...

The stages of systemic change.
September 1, 1993... Administrators across the United States are recognizing that the education system needs fundamental changes to keep pace with an increasingly complex global society. Yet, the deeper we get into the process of change, the more confused we can...

What is systemic change?
September 1, 1993... Many observers have called for systemic reform of the schools, but what does systemic mean? Following are five ways the world is currently being used. Systemic means working with school systems - district bureaucracies or state...

The human face of reform.
September 1, 1993... It has long since become commonplace to note be chronic cyclical, ephemeral nature of school reform. Indeed, one might now say of reform, as Samuel Johnson did of remarriage, that it represents the triumph of hope over experience. Will the...

Systemic change: rethinking the purpose of school.
September 1, 1993... Systemic reflection, not reflexive reaction, is fundamental to long-term improvement. Schools and districts must first ask the right questions. That there are so few examples of sustained, systemic change in our nation's schools should...

Finding time for collaboration.
September 1, 1993... Ask anybody directly involved in school reform about its most essential ingredient, and the answer is likely to be "time." Research concurs. Collaborative time for teachers to undertake and then sustain school improvement may be more...

How schools are redesigning their space.
September 1, 1993... Children work in a solar greenhouse, graphing plant growth, classifying and comparing types of plants, and harvesting food and flowers. They learn about physics from the structure of the building, and they investigate the visible...

Top-down - bottom-up: systemic change in Kentucky.
September 1, 1993... Trying to create a more equitable school system, Kentucky has focused on mandated top-down systemic change for the past three years. Bottom-up change comes next. When the Kentucky Supreme Court declared Kentucky's educational system...

Moving from seat time to mastery: one district's system. (Frederick County, Maryland)
September 1, 1993... The journey to become an outcome-based system is fraught with many lessons. Schools in Frederick County, Maryland, share a map of their process. Six years ago, Frederick County, Maryland, began a major restructuring effort, involving...

Change - from the grassroots up.
September 1, 1993... We put 25 chairs in a circle for my third-hour science class. "One of our district outcomes, accessing information, is important to the success of your science fair projects," I said to the 6th graders seated around me. "Let's talk about...

A portrait of Ted Sizer. (head of Brown University's Education Department and director of the Coalition of Essential Schools)
September 1, 1993... To hear Ted Sizer tell it, he was merely in the right place at the right time, but the story of his journey from a farm in Connecticut to chair of Brown University's Education Department and director of the Coalition of Essential Schools is a...

Turning learning into a business: concerns about total quality.
September 1, 1993... Before we jump on another corporate bandwagon, let's recall the primary difference between business and education. Workers produce goods like automobiles - the only things students should be making is meaning. Every few, years a new idea...

Adapting total quality doesn't mean "turning learning into a business."
September 1, 1993... AIfie Kohn is a first-rate thinker. His analysis deserves a close reading, especially now, when many schools are beginning to implement "Total Quality." The chief problem with his commentary is a failure to distinguish between adopting W....

Deming's quality: our last but best hope. (W. Edwards Deming)
September 1, 1993... I have worked for systemic change in education for 20 years and have failed often. The completeness of W. Edwards Deming's view has given me renewed hope (Deming 1986, 1993). If educators endorse Alfie Kohn's surface message about TQM, I fear...

The quality movement: what's it really about?
September 1, 1993... The surge of interest worldwide in TQM and its potential for dramatically improving educational systems, processes, and outcomes is, predictably, beginning to spawn its share of detractors. One of the most confounding of these is Alfie Kohn,...

The trouble with management models.
September 1, 1993... Should we abandon the "legacy of the factory school" (Bonstingl)? Give more thought to the "theories that can guide our actions" (Schenkat)? Try to become more responsive to the "needs and preferences" of students (Schmoker and Wilson)?...

From Quebec to Tokyo: perspectives on TQM.
September 1, 1993... Dear Yoshiaki Obara: I am coordinator of student affairs of College Montmorency in Laval, Province of Quebec, in Canada. I am completing a master's degree in school administration. Here in Quebec, business and government talk a lot...

Global connections.
September 1, 1993... By blending the disciplines in engaging ways, 10th grade teachers at an Ohio high school are showing students their fundamental link with the global community. It's 7:23 a.m. in the Global Connections office of Reynoldsburg High School....

How dry is the desert? Nurturing interdisciplinary learning.
September 1, 1993... Thirty teachers who explored the cultural resources of Nevada through a summer institute on water demonstrate how interdisciplinary curriculum can begin at home. We stood in the desert at the edge of a deep hole that had once held the...

At water's edge: students study their rivers. (students in the Midwest adopt the Rivers Project to know more about their rivers)
September 1, 1993... The movie A River Runs Through It focuses on a river in Montana and its effect on the people whose everyday lives we inter-twined with it. Just like the movie, the Rivers Project is a whole school curriculum with the river theme running...

Hooking kids with humanities. (Collaboratives for Humanities and Arts Teaching -CHART-)
September 1, 1993... In the library at Cleveland Humanities Magnet High School, a multi-ethnic group of 150 12th grade students from all over Los Angeles is discussing American pragmatism. The students are enrolled in Humanitas, an interdisciplinary humanities...

Authentic language lessons from my grandparents.
September 1, 1993... As a child I was surrounded by many languages. Besides English, my grandparents spoke Polish, Italian, Spanish, and a little French. When the conversation was for everyone, my grandparents spoke English. Otherwise, they slipped into their...

Not just for future scientists.
September 1, 1993... Recent national recommendations have suggested that science curriculums need to reduce trivial content and lecture, emphasize thinking skills, and contextually integrate content from other subjects (Rutherford and Ahlgren 1990, National...

The Assistant Principal: Leadership Choices and Challenges.(Brief Article)
September 1, 1993... The Assistant Principal provides a complete consideration of the much-maligned position of assistant principal, including an extensive bibliography. Marshall effectively uses case studies and quantitative research in this volume, but she...