This report summarizes preliminary findings from the Youth Engaged in Leadership and Learning project in Redwood City, California, which prepared and supported youth in becoming knowledgeable and active decision-makers in their schools and communities, and played a key role in developing youths' leadership skills and encouraging civic engagement…

California State Standard 7.1 is delineated in the following manner: "Students analyze the causes and effects of the vast expansion and ultimate disintegration of the Roman Empire." One important legacy of ancient Rome is the foundation it set for the development of modern democracies. The Roman Stoics built upon the Greek Stoic model by…

The effects of school policy on cigarette smoking among seventh graders were investigated in this study. All of the schools involved had restrictive smoking policies and many had smoking prevention education plans. Although punitive measures were found to have no effect, smoking policy generally was found to decrease adolescent smoking. (AF)

Various elementary schools and middle schools across the U.S. have purchased one or more mobile laboratories. Although the wireless labs have provided more classroom computing, teachers and technology aides still have mixed views about their cost-benefit ratio. This is because the proliferation of viruses and spyware has dramatically increased…

A curriculum unit for middle school Earth Science called "What's on Your Plate?" was designed. The unit was implemented in several middle and high school classrooms in California and Massachusetts. In the first implementation, the total number of students who participated was 1100. The unit was designed with two main pedagogical…

This publication presents the following articles: (1) Advanced Technological Education (ATE) Develops Student Recruitment and Retention Strategies; (2) Marketer Advises Tech Educators Appeal to Teens' Emotions, Desires to Do Something Important; (3) Digital Bridge Academy Gets At-Risk Students on Paths to Knowledge-Based Careers; (4) Project…

If the notion of public and private spheres seems somehow quaint or old-fashioned, the distinction between public and private corporations will be that much more obscure. Yet Channel One broadcasts in a public school classroom are indisputably the result of a contract between a private corporation (Alloy Media + Marketing) and a public corporation…

Efforts at improving fieldwork supervision during internship have largely focused on the role of university supervisors and intern teachers. Thus students' perceptions of the instructional practices are not systematically collected, analyzed and discussed in such a way that insights from students' perceptions can inform fieldwork supervision. This…

Grouping students by ability into courses with distinct curricula, or "tracking" as it is called in middle and high schools, has provoked a furious debate among educational scholars and practitioners. Research on tracking invariably characterizes the practice as a school-level, unitary phenomenon; schools are depicted as either tracked…

This paper examines the implementation of California's 1987 policy promoting the untracking of middle schools, a reform endorsed by the state in both "Caught in the Middle" (1987) and the "English-Language Arts Framework (1987)." Specifically, the paper looks at changes in eighth-grade English tracking policies for a sample of…

This handbook, based on an address given by James R. Smith, a former deputy superintendent of public instruction in the California State Department of Education, describes the elements of California's strategic approach for lasting school reform. The assertion is made that lasting, positive, and major changes in schools require that state…

The Scholars-in-the-Schools program (SIS), previously known as Humanities-in-the-Schools (HIS), is designed to improve humanities education by placing humanities scholars in residence at a middle school or high school. The scholar works with teachers and students as a resource person in a variety of ways: as a curriculum consultant; lecturer;…

A description is given of a collaborative effort between a state university and a middle school in California. The program is designed to attract, train, and retain future teachers. Among other factors, the program explores effective instruction, curriculum strategies, utilizing clinical supervision, and current teaching/learning techniques. An…

California State Standard 7.4 is delineated in the following manner: "Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of the sub-Saharan civilizations of Ghana and Mali in Medieval Africa. Seventh-grade students focus on the Niger River and the growth of the Mali and Ghana empires; analyze the importance…

California State Standard 7.7 is delineated in the following manner: "Students compare and contrast the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of the Meso-American and Andean civilizations." Seventh-grade students study the locations, landforms, and climates of Mexico and Central and South America and their…