Tessa Kaganoff

Young teens undergo multiple physical, social-emotional, and intellectual changes, which have been viewed as setting them apart from both younger and older students. The basic concept of a separate middle school was to better focus on and serve the special needs of children in their early teens. The question is whether middle schools, as currently designed and operated, are performing that function well. Or, as some have alleged, do they unintentionally encourage poor behavior, alienation, disengagement, and low achievement? This monograph is a comprehensive assessment of the American middle school. It presents observations on a variety of very real issues troubling social climates and associated behavioral problems, teachers who lack subject-matter expertise, and parents who seem uninvolved, among others. The authors offer ways of tackling these issues: reassessing the organization of grades K-12; specifically assisting the students most in need; finding ways to prevent disciplinary problems; working with proven professional-development models; helping parents understand the school's goals and methods and how they can help their children learn at home; and exploring how other countries promote the well-being of and provide positive school climates for students of comparable age to support academic achievement. Published by the RAND Corporation. Distributed to the trade by National Book Network."

Undertaken for the Department of Defense1s Office of the Chancellor for Education and Professional Development, this report addresses the need of organizations to exert influence in situations where they lack the hierarchical authority that would make such influence straightforward. It does so by presenting a three-stage framework that will help such organizations recognize and capitalize on the power-and-influence options available to them.

Undertaken for the Department of Defense1s Office of the Chancellor for Education and Professional Development, this report outlines an approach for describing and evaluating external governance in a multi-organizational system of education, training, and professional development, which should be of interest to those charged with oversight of such systems. The approach consists of two main tasks: a structural analysis, which maps governance arrangements, and an implementation audit, which assesses effectiveness. (MF)

This book deals with meeting the challenges of securing private support for public education.

Looks at how Department of Defense (DoD) education, training, and development institutions are affected by the consolidation of DoD facilities and changes in governance structure. The Department of Defense (DoD) often improves its efficiency by consolidating facilities (mainly through base realignment and closure, or BRAC) and changing its governance structure. These shifts significantly affect the education, training, and development (ET&D) institutions that support DoD personnel, with such impact as relocation. With an eye toward the 2005 BRAC, RAND researchers look at four case studies of the 1990s and from them make recommendations for ET&D institutions that may be affected by future shifts in defense infrastructure. (PW)

One liner: Examines the range of arts programming partnerships in the Los Angeles Unified School District and provides feedback from principals, teachers, arts organizations, and district arts advisors on the challenges and obstacles in these partnerships 450-character abstract: The Los Angeles Unified School District in 1999 approved a ten-year program to implement a substantive, sequential curriculum in arts education. A central goal of the plan calls for schools to build partnerships with the Los Angeles arts community to provide educational programming, beginning with elementary schools in the Arts Prototype Schools (APS) program. This study examined the range of partnerships in operation and identified partnership challenges and facilitators through interviews with APS principals and teachers, local district arts advisors, and directors of arts organizations.