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Over the past two decades, elite Islamic schools have come to form an important component of the Islamicization effort in Indonesia. Since the 1990s, many of these institutions have been recognized as leaders in Islamic education. With this development, this new type of school was enthusiastically embraced from the start by the Muslim community, especially the middle and upper classes. However, there were very little academic literature exists on how to best employ this new concept of school for Muslim countries which is developing such school. Traditional management approaches to teaching and learning are no longer adequate, as an excellent and international school with modern management and open minded have completely developed. The book also reveals that the school has to adopt policies to promote transparency in the organizational and administrative spheres, openness to non-Muslims, and accessibility to other sections of society. In addition, this book makes a contribution to the fields of school reform and school effectiveness. Moreover, the study may also have implications for other social and religious contexts.

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Nurlena Rifai: Associate Professor is now working as Vice Dean of Academic Affairs at Faculty of Tarbiya and Teaching Sciences, State Islamic University, Jakarta, Indonesia. She has a Master of Arts in Islamic Studies and Ph.D in Education at McGill University, Montreal, Canada. She has attended many conferences in Indonesia and overseas.

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