The book analyzes worldwide changes in school organization and the teaching profession, and how the profession has been impacted by education policies that promote assessments and accountability. It also identifies some shifts in professional positions, statuses and profiles, and characterizes the impact and contextualization of professional standards that shape teaching practices and the management of schools. Further, the book provides relevant comparative and empirical data on the restructuring of the teaching profession in an era of globalization through a critical perspective on and an overview of the main research and comparative findings across countries. As such, the book is not only directed to educational researchers but will also interest professionals and policymakers, addressing a broader education and policy community concerned by the new aspects shaping the teaching profession in the 21st century.

European welfare institutions such as education and health care are restructuring their organisations in terms of decentralisation, deregulation, privatization and so forth. As a consequence professional positions and demands on professional competencies in these institutions are in transition. At the same time European societies are changing in different ways, e.g. in terms of a "knowledge society" as well as in demographic and cultural changes. Professionals such as teachers and nurses are meeting such changes in their work with students and clients.Thus, there is a need to study these transitions and changes. Here we are doing this from a "bottom-up" perspective where we are comparing experiences in different institutional and national contexts. This study combines two kinds of narrative research; a study of the systemic narratives produced by governments who are restructuring educational systems and the life history narratives of those professionals working within those systems and their perspectives on ongoing restructuring.

The widening mismatch between the skills of the work force and the skill demands of the workplace underlie the need for school restructuring. Within the categories of school-level, school-district, and state-level issues, a discussion about and suggestions for restructuring U.S. education in order to improve its productivity and student acquisition of higher order thinking skills comprise the crux of this document. Educational goals, the structure of knowledge, instructional tasks and activities, instructional group size and composition, and instructional time are reviewed and analyzed as school-level issues. School district role, central office functions, the balance between centralized control and local autonomy, present and alternative governance structures, personnel policies and practices, and collective bargaining are analyzed within the rubric of school district issues. A discussion of state-level issues suggests setting educational goals, stimulating local innovation, and rethinking state accountability systems. In response to the educational challenges that schools face, fundamental changes in the way local districts and states operate will determine the way schools are structured, instruction is provided, and staff roles and responsibilities are defined. (24 references) (JAM)

Winner of the 1998 American Educational Studies Association Critics' Choice Titles This book challenges common assumptions about the efficacy of teacher collaboration, empowerment, and professional development to improve the educational experiences of low-achieving African American students without engaging the political and ideological contexts in which reforms take place. Written in a clear, engaging style, the book tells the story of two restructuring junior high schools in a single district, and how teachers' ideologies and race, class, and power contradictions in the schools, school district, and city shaped outcomes. Although the book is a critique of restructuring, powerful portraits of teachers who create culturally responsive and empowering educational experiences demonstrate the potential to reform educational practices and policies for African American students and suggest a direction for transforming schools.

(Published in cooperation with The Center on Innovation & Improvement) As suggested by the title, the purpose of this Handbook on Restructuring and Substantial School Improvement is to provide principles for restructuring and substantially improving schools. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, the Center on Innovation & Improvement (CII) engaged leading experts on restructuring and school improvement to prepare modules for this handbook to assist states, districts, and schools in establishing policies, procedures, and support to successfully restructure schools. The Handbook is organized into three sections. The topic of the Handbook’s modules – restructuring with a focus on the district as the impetus for dramatic improvement – is relatively new in the nation’s education history. For this reason, the module authors were selected because they are highly experienced experts in their fields and can be counted on to judiciously weigh the less than definitive evidence and to state useful guiding principles.