This study was designed to understand and interpret the historical andphilosophical backgrounds of the American educational reform and roles of the "Next Century Schools" in the processes of educational reform. The relevant literatures were ...

This study was designed to understand and interpret the historical andphilosophical backgrounds of the American educational reform and roles of the "Next Century Schools" in the processes of educational reform. The relevant literatures were reviewed first, and the site visits to the "Next Century Schools" had been made next, and finally, discussions among professionals on educational reform had been followed.
First, the efforts of the American Department of Education for educationalrefmTIl since the national report of "A Nation at Risk" in 1983 have been analyzed. The "America 2000" in 1991 has been examined in its philosophies, purposes, and strategies.
Second, the "Next Century Schools" program have been reviewed by theirbackgrounds of establishment, philosophies, purposes, strategies, methods of school selection, program managements, and successful cases.
Third, many different schools like the "On-site management schools", "Magnetschools", "Charter schools", "Voucher schools", and "Privatized schools" have been compared by their value orientations, governing bodies, managing ways, ways and scopes of school selection by students, ways of student selection by schools, curricula, tuition and fees, financial support by the states and local school districts, responsibilities on reporting students' achievements, and relationships with teacher unions, etc.
Fourth, the "No Child Left Behind Act of 2001" have been analyzed by itspurposes and strategies and its relationship with the "Next Century Schools".
Throughout these reviews the assumption that the "Next Century Schools"have been played major roles in the processes of the American educational refonn was carefully analyzed. There were strong relationships between the "Next-----한줄이 지워짐----strategies.
The research recommended the school autonomy as the most important policyin the processes of the Korean educational reform.