An alternative high school in the US where democracy is truly enacted by the students is described. Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center, Colorado, is a unique school where the students' personal voices are valued that helps them develop power, responsibility, and authority over their education.

For the past eight years, the Speak Up National Research Project has endeavored to stimulate new discussions around these kinds of questions and to provide a context to help education, parent, policy and business leaders think beyond today and envision tomorrow. This report is the first in a two part series to document the key national findings…

In the chapters presented in this volume, leading experts describe some of the assessment challenges in greater detail and provide federal recommendations on how to address them. In "College and Work Readiness as a Goal of High Schools: The Role of Standards, Assessments, and Accountability," John Tanner of the Center for Innovative Measures at…

Although U.S. schools typically express commitment to preparing students for the responsibilities of democratic citizenship, most American youth are socialized for adult civic life by an institution that defines them as passive and subordinate and treats them in ways that are anything but democratic. In contrast to such counterproductive…

Drawing on the parallel literature on increasing student voice in the field of education and on building youth-adult partnerships in the youth development field, this article examines the place of young people in efforts to increase social justice in school settings. Through an examination of thirteen youth-adult partnership initiatives, it…

This article describes the pedagogy, practice and outcomes of a digital art program developed to enable high school and middle school students to become active participants in new forms of grassroots public media. Students and their teachers become producers and controllers of art-based videos and associated digital dialogue which is distributed…

This article describes the school-based, small group adaptation of the existing Strong Teens Curriculum (STC) for African American male adolescents in high schools. The STC was created to equip adolescents with skills that promote more effective social interaction and enhance personal emotional and psychological wellness. The authors present a…

This paper reports on processes employed at a secondary state high school in Australia, where students directed inclusive school development. The procedures used in the study were developed from the Index for Inclusion and included a student forum; a student presentation to parents, principal and teachers and a focus group interview with members…

This article discusses how a radical approach to teacher education encourages both pre-service teachers and high school students to embrace a paradoxical model of leadership. A project that positions high school students as teachers and learners in an undergraduate secondary teacher certification course challenges pre-service teachers to learn to…

The Academy For Learning (AFL) serves urban students with emotional and behavioral problems. Through a Personal and Social Responsibility program, students develop skills for personal growth and service learning. Many alternative programs for troubled students offer little more than a curriculum for containment and control. In contrast, students…

Positing that place has a pedagogy that can be harnessed for educative means and ends or left to chance and that partnering place and its pedagogy with teaching magnifies the influence of place and teaching, I conceptualize "metissage" as place of education. Because few scholars in education have written about metissage and even fewer have…

Children come to school with a variety of factors impinging on their academic success (Rose, 1998). The impact of these factors varies in degree. Furthermore, children from high-risk urban areas may experience barriers that not only hinder academic success, but also support their disengagement from educational institutions. Therefore, working with…

Lack of relevant course work is a top reason why high school students drop out, and studies have shown that low-income and minority students are less likely to be enrolled in college preparatory curricula than their more affluent peers. In today's world, it is critical to ensure that all students have access to a rigorous, high-quality education…

Kensington High School is a neighborhood school located in the Kensington area of Philadelphia. After a successful campaign led by Youth United for Change, Kensington High School was broken up into three small schools, with a fourth to be built. Youth researchers explored the relationships between adults and students in all three of the new small…

This qualitative study, employing an ethnographic research method, investigates how dialogue journal writing, which allows teachers and learners to engage in "written conversation", may provide an opportunity to bring critical pedagogy and foreign language education together in a productive way in the context of a critical literacy…