Responds to the report of the National Commission on Excellence in Education, taking issue with the two major themes of the report: the poor condition of American schooling and what to do to effect improvements. Comments on several of the report's recommendations for action. (RH)

Academic performance differences among children from varied socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds are unacceptably large. Instead of waiting for U.S. society to solve its inequity problems, educators must prepare all children to achieve their full potential. Educators should think of all children as promising, use early-intervention strategies, and…

For over 25 years, Title I and Chapter 1 programs have provided remedial services to children deficient in basic skills by instructing them separately. The most important future objectives for compensatory education are preventing early reading failure, enhancing regular classroom instruction, and improving assessment and accountability. (27…

Eight years of research show there is a way to improve race relations in desegregated schools: the creation of multiracial, cooperative learning teams in classrooms. (Author/MLF)

Research overwhelmingly supports the usefulness of cooperative learning for improving the social outcomes of schooling, such as intergroup relations, attitudes toward mainstreamed students, and general positive relations between students. (Author)

The purpose of this manual is to give teachers the information they need to use student team learning, which is described as a method to promote major academic and nonacademic goals such as improved basic skills, improved student self-concept, and better interpersonal/cross-racial relationships. Complete directions are given for three techniques:…

Certain grouping arrangements in elementary and secondary schools appear to be instructionally effective for students, but the psychological drawbacks may offset any advantages. The relative benefits and disadvantages of within-class grouping and between-class grouping are discussed, along with the problems with ability grouping. (TE)

Responds to Sue Klein's comparative analysis on Design Competitions and Expert Panels (Educational Research, 1997) in which the author addresses drawbacks of the Expert Panels approach to educational product evaluation. Cautions that the approach is so minimalist a strategy that it could inhibit more serious attempts to build a system based on…

Proposes the need for a design competition system (DCS) in federally funded educational research and development and discusses the key issues that a DCS must address in methodology. Also addresses the high cost of using a DCS and whether such costs can be justified. Concludes that a DCS is justified and necessary. (GR)

For enhancing student achievement, the most successful cooperative learning approaches have incorporated two key elements: group goals and individual accountability. Positive effects have been consistently found on outcomes such as self-esteem, intergroup relations, acceptance of academically handicapped students, attitudes toward school, and…

If education is to halt the ever-swinging pendulum and make significant progress in student achievement, it must first change the ground rules for selecting, implementing, evaluating, and institutionalizing innovations like Hunter's model. This article proposes steps for providing an infrastructure capable of promoting lasting and beneficial…

Statewide finance reform offers a one-time opportunity for overhauling services. Any funding remedy should address improved base funding for low-income schools and investment in programs and practices designed to help schools increase student performance. This article describes a mechanism for using new monies to disseminate effective programs,…

Systemic (top-down) educational reforms will remain limited unless they improve every teacher's methods and materials. Comprehensive or whole-school reform "scales up" effective schools until many more schools meet state and national standards. The federally funded Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration program provides a supportive…

Mastery Learning and Student Team Learning are two widely used instructional methods designed to confront the problem of student diversity in group-paced instruction. This study evaluated Mastery Learning, Student Team Learning, and a combination, in 43 inner-city math nine classes over a full school year. Results indicated greater achievement on…

Teams-Games-Tournaments (TGT) is a classroom program which addresses the problems of student values, student diversity, and basic skills. This article describes: how TGT works, its origins, research to date, implications for teachers and researchers, how TGT is used in the classroom, and new directions for TGT. (Author/SJL)