Magnet schools have developed strong national and local constituencies among parents and educators, who see them as vehicles for bringing equity and academic excellence to all students. Typically, these schools offer innovative programs through a specialized focus or theme. They may emphasize subjects like science or the arts, or they may adopt…

The second volume of the English-language The China Educational Development Yearbook offers international scholars a glimpse into key issues in Chinese education today from the perspective of Chinese academics, practitioners, and applied researchers. An edited translation of the 2009 volume of the Chinese-language "Blue Book of…

The primary purpose of this study was to determine if there were commonalities in the approaches of 10 elementary school principals in the state of Florida identified as "success stories" in leading reading improvement in their schools in 2002, shortly after enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act at the national level and the Just…

This article is based on a survey covering 1,435 Norwegian teachers in compulsory schools in 47 municipalities. It examines associations between teacher involvement in school development activity (SDA) and teachers' attitudes toward SDA as well as their perceived working environment concerning innovation activity among staff and the principal's…

A history of the outstanding K-12 dance program in Vancouver, Washington, is provided, including various strategies used to promote its growth from a few pilot elementary schools through middle schools to an arts magnet high school. Numerous changes have been weathered by the professional dance staff, including certification challenges instigated…

The case for more technology in schools is compelling. The leverage for a school based solution is traceable to the "Common and Agreed National Goals for Schooling" (AEC, 1989), namely that students will develop skills in "information processing and computing". Schools have wrestled with this "integration challenge"…

Hands-on science typically uses physical materials to give students first-hand experience in scientific methodologies, but the recent availability of virtual laboratories raises an important question about whether what students' hands are on matters to their learning. The overall findings of two articles that employed simple comparisons of…

We examined the extent to which state departments of education are including (a) goals for student social behavior in their mission statements; (b) criteria for individual student, classroom, and schoolwide behavior support in certification standards for general education teachers, special education teachers, and principals; and (c) state…

It is no secret that language arts and math are the dominant features of the elementary curriculum. This is especially the case in Kindergarten through third grades. In many states, the thrust of the curriculum in the primary grades is on learning to read. After that, it is thought that students will then be able to read to learn. With that…

School districts discover that the secret to implement a good laptop program is to find a good partner. This article features educational partnerships that provide tools and support districts need to roll out successful laptop programs. At Cincinnati Country Day School district administrators joined with Toshiba and a solution provider to provide…

The National Charter School Research Project (NCSRP) at the University of Washington's Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) has embarked on an ambitious research agenda to study the people and work of charter schools. The initiative is called "Inside Charter Schools." This initiative has two main parts. The first part, entitled "Studying…

Congress is taking an active role in understanding and responding to the underlying problems that confront America's competitiveness in the global economy. During the 109th congressional session, legislation has been introduced addressing the importance of mathematics and science in the global economy. The Senate's Protecting America's Competitive…

Schools face an array of recommendations for reforming educational practices. If these recommendations are to be implemented on a large scale, reformers will need to embed clear strategies to make educational innovations and implementation procedures culturally responsive. Schoolwide positive behavior support, as an approach to whole-school…

Can second-grade students construct an understanding of sophisticated science processes and explore physics concepts while creating their own inventions? Yes! Students accomplished this and much more through a month-long project in which they used Legos and Robolab, the Lego computer programing software, to create their own inventions. One…

For the thirty-sixth year, the Research and Theory Division of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) is sponsoring the publication of these Proceedings. Papers published in this volume were presented at the annual AECT Convention in Anaheim, California. The Proceedings of AECT's Convention are published in two…