Why do some schools and districts thrive in a decentralized environment while others simply go through the motions? What factors foster improved through school-based management? To discover the answers, the authors spent four years studying 40 schools in the USA, Canada and Australia. All the schools had been engaged in site based management (...
(commonly referred to as CSR) is a conspicuous feature of the last decade of public education reform. CSR refers to lowering the actual number of students in a single classroom. It should not be confused with teacher/pupil ratio which counts all educators within a school. CSR is an educational, economic and political issue of interest to all edu...
Over the last decade, reforms have incrementally shifted the primary focus of local education governance towards improving education outcomes through shared decision making and embedded accountability structures. What follows briefly examines some emerging trends, issues and challenges for school boards across the Canadian landscape. Communit...
It has become increasingly clear that sustained school improvement requires a system solution - one that is at the same time practical and effective on a large scale. That solution in my view is within our grasp; it is what I call the tri-level solution. The tri-level solution focuses on total system transformation through the conscious, deliber...
Worldwide, a number of developed countries including Canada are part of a trend to national standards and assessment for public education. This standards-based reform is occurring whether education is either a federal or state/provincial responsibility. The rationale for setting national standards varies but generally includes: rai...