Following substantial changes throughout the Australian education system, primary schools are no longer in the protected position of having a regulated flow of clients, a pre-determined curriculum and marginal levels of staff development. Recent moves have brought new or increased responsibilities for all schools in areas such as: *curriculum and policy development *staff development *monitoring and assessment *the use of new technologies *resource allocation This book seeks to review the impact of this change on Australian primary schools, on the people who are involved with them and the issues they face. Primary education is being re-structured throughout the world, and therefore these issues are of great interest and relevance to educators worldwide.

Tony Townsend is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education and, from 1988 to 1997, the Director of the South Pacific Centre for School and Community Development at Monash University in Melbourne. He has brought the research interests of community education and school effectiveness together in his work for the International Community Education Association (where he was the elected Director of the Pacific Region between 1987 and 1996) and the International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement (ICSEI) (where he serves on the editorial board of the journal School Effectiveness and School Improvement and was conference manager for ICSEI’s 1994 conference in Melbourne).