Systemic Education Reform.

This bulletin explores the roles that various stakeholders have in systemic reform and offers some recommendations for action. Data were derived from a review of research on systemic education reform and interviews with four Oregon administrators. Chapter 1 provides a sampling of the diverse groups that are calling for reform and offers some of the reasons why systemic reform is considered essential. The chapter also reviews reform efforts of the 1980s and examines ways in which this wave of reform fell short of fundamentally reshaping education. Chapter 2 refines the meaning of systemic reform, teasing out various components crucial to reform and offering a glimpse of how change might manifest itself at local and state levels. The third chapter focuses on systemic reform in Oregon. After briefly discussing the impact of the Oregon Educational Act for the 21st Century in shaping the direction of change in Oregon schools, this chapter features three Oregon districts that are involved in significant reform efforts. Chapter 4 highlights three groups that are key to successful systemic reform--superintendents, school boards, and principals. (LMI)