In the United States, how to provide a high-quality education to all students has been a focal discussion, especially in urban settings. One potential solution that has emerged to confront this issue involves urban teacher residency (UTR) programs that provide innovations concerning the recruitment, preparation, and retention of teachers in…

Advanced high-school courses, such as Advanced Placement (AP) courses in the United States, present a content selection conundrum of major proportions. Judicious content selection is necessary if students are to learn subject matter meaningfully, but the sheer breadth of tested material in these courses promotes nearly the opposite:…

The purpose of this paper is to take a closer look at the states that have designed strong history standards and note what has made them exceptional so other states might do the same. They include Alabama, California, Indiana, Massachusetts, New York, and South Carolina. The report draws on interviews with individuals from each state who sat on…

This paper describes strategies used by novice biology teachers to exert sociolinguistic control over conversations when teaching unfamiliar subject-matter content. These discourse control strategies were identified in a year-long study of teacher subject-matter knowledge and its effects on teaching, and are illustrated in three lessons taught by…

The purpose of this study was to develop guidelines for a new high school chemistry and physics teacher training program. Eleven participants were interviewed who attended daylong workshops, every other Saturday, for 10 months. The instructors used Modeling Instruction pedagogy and curriculum. All the instructors had high school teaching…

In Spring 2013 San José State University (SJSU) launched SJSU Plus: three college courses required for most students to graduate, which used massive open online course provider Udacity's platform, attracting over 15,000 students. Retention and success (pass/fail) and online support were tested using an augmented online learning environment (AOLE)…

How many beginning teachers struggle to create new lessons despite the fact that experienced teachers have already designed effective lessons for the same content? Shulman (1987) used the term "collective amnesia" to describe the failure of school leaders to design professional development that included the collection of its best…

Research makes it clear that the critical factor in whether a student succeeds in college is the "quality and intensity" of the curriculum he or she takes in high school. For many Latino students, access to a high-quality, rigorous K-12 curriculum is limited. In those states where there was an existing movement to align the local P-16…

Designed for college-bound students, their parents, and high school teachers, counselors, and administrators in California, this statement sets forth recommendations concerning the skills, attitudes, and qualities that should be imparted by high school science programs and the curriculum and courses to impart them. Prefactory material provides…

School personnel in California were surveyed about family life education efforts. Although such programs exist in many districts, less than one-fourth of the ninth and one-third of the tenth graders received instruction. Recommendations for implementing, improving, and evaluating family life education programs are offered. (Author/DF)

For decades, educators have wrestled with how to handle the increasingly diverse religions of an increasingly diverse student body. Sometimes, the line between church and state--what schools can and cannot do under the Constitution--can feel confusing and slippery. Today, religion has become a subject one high school teachers describes as even…

This resource book is designed to assist teachers in implementing California's history-social science framework at the 10th grade level. The models support implementation at the local level and may be used to plan topics and select resources for professional development and preservice education. This document provides a link between the…

SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND COMPUTER SIMULATION TECHNIQUES WERE APPLIED IN A STUDY OF INNOVATION FOR A 10TH-GRADE SOCIAL STUDIES COURSE. THE COURSE CONTENT WAS AMERICAN HISTORY WHICH WAS DIVIDED INTO 10 CONTENT AREAS SUCH AS COLONIAL, REVOLUNTIONARY, AND CONSTITUTIONAL AMERICAN. THE ACTIVITIES OF THE COURSE INCLUDED TEAM TEACHING, LECTURES, MEDIA…

The California Art Education Association (CAEA) has outlined guidelines to help administrators, teachers, and others responsible for determining the acceptable content of visual arts courses offered to meet California's state graduation requirements or entry requirements into a state university. Emphasis for visual arts courses should be on the…

The study summarized in this report investigated the current nature of California's high school curriculum, how it is determined, and how it differs for different groups of students. Data were gathered from 26 representative high schools. Chapter 1 describes the six levels of curricular policy and decision making in California and the decisions…