Differential instruction approaches appropriate for teaching students with differing ethnic and racial backgrounds are a key to developing effective approaches to multicultural education. Important and frequently discussed approaches include student learning styles, dialect differences among ethnic and racial groups, and bilingual education.…

The controversy over the decentralization of schools focuses essentially on the issue of community control. This article explores the current status of decentralization and evaluates its effectiveness as a vehicle for community influence and educational reform. (Author/WD)

Reviews research on instructional techniques recognizing the different learning styles, languages, dialects, or cultures of minority students. Concludes that special educational programs for students of other cultures may have both positive and negative outcomes. (JM)

Future school curricula are likely to be less departmentalized and more integrated and holistic. This article summarizes new trends and emerging issues, such as telecommunications; computer literacy; nuclear, environmental, and AIDS education; nutrition and exercise, aging education, and futuristic study. Includes 18 notes. (MLH)

Describes recent developments in video technology and discusses guidelines for its use in the classroom. As a classroom tool, it has tremendous potential for interactive, individualized learning and offers material appropriate to a more visual learning style. (CJS)

This second of two articles on questioning strategies and skills explores for principals evaluating teaching the characteristics of good questions, to dos and don'ts in questioning, and the research on questioning. (CJH)

This first part of a two-part article (concluded next issue) reviews the major research both supporting and denying the notion that teachers can significantly affect student learning. Notes six important reasons why the research has been inconclusive, primarily related to disagreement over definitions of relevant variables and desired outcomes.…

Discusses grading in elementary and secondary schools, focusing on the following topics: combining and weighting data, grading criteria, absolute grade standards, relative grade standards, contracting for grades, mastery and continuous progress grading, grading for effort or improvement, report cards, and procedures for grading students. (SR)

Although the research on teacher effectiveness provides a vocabulary and system for improving insights into good teaching, it may induce rigidity into our viewpoints. Following only the research on teaching can put too much emphasis on specific behaviors that cannot be easily measured or prescribed in advance. Includes 24 references. (MLH)

Research on teaching has begun to concentrate on "product" or student outcomes. Three instructional techniques are important in the analysis of student outcomes: (1) academic learning time, (2) direct instruction, and (3) mastery learning. The author explores the merits of each, reviewing both critics' and advocates' positions. (MD)

Describes the growing public demand for holding teachers accountable for student performance. Asserts that this position assumes that effectiveness can be measured, whereas the incluence teachers have on student achievement is complex and variable, and may be less than that of family and peers. Describes various State-effort accountability plans.…

Discusses student rights and responsibilities, the role of the court, and the role of school officials in matters concerning student discipline, disruptive behavior, and violence. (MJL)

Contrasts community control with community participation in administratively decentralized schools. Lists large school districts in the U.S. which have been decentralized and discusses attitudes of school officials toward community involvement in public schools. Calls for more research on the effects of decentralization and community control on…

Reviews two major approaches to educational reform: (1) a model which sets up varying kinds of alternatives to traditional schools; and (2) an approach that attempts to bring about systematic reform throughout a school or school district. Suggests that these strategies are not mutually exclusive. (Author/GC)

According to a survey of large school districts, the ratio of central office managers to students enrolled ranges from 1 administrator per 1,650 students to 1 administrator per 161 students. The average ratio was 1 administrator per 561 students. Western school districts appear most efficient. The ideal: 1 administrator per 1,000 to 1,200…