ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses four "conditions" which the authors believe demand innovative responses not only "beyond the doors of the public school" but behind them as well. These conditions are: fiscal structure, illiteracy, linkages between schools and the community, and access to lifelong education. The chapter addresses these conditions first by briefly listing the "demand" factors that call for educational reform, and second by discussing, in greater depth, a "supply side" perspective of institutional change that is posited and used to analyze the previously listed four conditions. In Virginia, research has shown that low levels of educational attainment and high drop-out rates also impede the development of a number of other important indicators of regional life quality, including the ability to attract new industrial jobs. The spatial dimension encompasses the effects of regional economic adjustments, providing a framework for interpreting interregional and even international capital and labor flows.
