To Jenny Lasky & Christine O'Connell: Jarvis Grant was right on point with his response to Jenny's inquiry. The field is wide open for anyone dedicated to the idea that museum's are an integral part of a community's educational infrastructure. With regard to his point about looking to small museums, it is in this area that the greatest changes in public education will take place. Why? Because small museums are often found in small communities. Small communities have less bureaucratic issues to deal with (like cumbersome school boards, etc.) when change is called for. And small communities often rely more heavily on their museums to provide informal educational experiences to students that can't be funded by the schools (i.e. art education in K thru 6th grade) or can't be offered because the school district faculty may lack a specific expertise (i.e. hard-science nature studies in grades K thru 6th). Also, small museums are often found in rural communities. Rural communities have been getting a lot of funding attention because they are so underserved and often saddled with underfunded government mandates that very often devastate such things as educational electives, libraries and the like. I think one key you can look for is the curriculum work a particular museum is involved with--especially if the education team is involved with curriculum design, development and testing. Often, educators get their start in the museum world by becoming involved in curriculum development. For example, I know of a marine biologist that helped one ed. team develop a study pond program for schools. She is now on the ed. team staff, conducts teacher inservices for educators in several school districts, and conducts pond study classes for grades 4th thru 6th almost continuously 5 days a week. One last pitch for small museums. The State of California has made available 1000 charters for establishing break-the-mold approaches to public education. Museum/school district partnerships are expected to apply for several of these charters. Many of these museum-based chartered schools will occur in small communities because the concerns of the teachers union are more easily assuaged when teacher groups are small and/or less factionated. So, Jenny & Christine...my advice...look for opportunity at smaller museums. Consider museums that serve rural communities. Seek out museums that are integral parts of a communities educational infrastructure, and find and museum with an education team that is very involved with curriculum design, development and testing in an area you are interested in. Rich Jones Shasta Natural Science Association [log in to unmask]