In this article, the author presents his thoughts, as a teacher activist, on the school closing process in Philadelphia, particularly the effect of the closing process on Beeber Middle School and its response to the closing. The District's Facilities Master Plan originally called for closing 37 schools, Some schools were removed from the closing…

Schools must be learning organizations, but learning does not happen automatically. Visiting classrooms, reviewing student work, collecting artifacts, and analyzing achievement data is essential to the health of a school and its ability to educate students. One of the key ways the school administrators of Pottsgrove Middle School in Pottstown,…

This cross-sectional explanatory study integrated three complex social processes--democratic community, faculty trust, and organizational learning--into a single testable model. The review of literature demonstrated substantial evidence for the proposed model. The data sources for the study included approximately 3,000 teachers from 79 public…

The second edition of this essential handbook provides a comprehensive, updated overview of the science that informs best practices for the implementation of response to intervention (RTI) processes within Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) to facilitate the academic success of all students. The volume includes insights from leading scholars…

Research has shown that certain ways of teaching can make a difference in whether students learn standards-based content. Many strategies have proven to be effective in teaching literacy, mathematics, science and social studies. These strategies have facilitated blending academic and career/technical subjects to make learning more meaningful for…

Although critical ethnographers have explored in some depth the ways that social critique informs how youth assess their schooling experiences, the implications of social critique by educators themselves have been of much less interest. Yet, numerous professional educational movements have been wrought from social critique or, at the very least,…

Connecting students to reading and writing means connecting them to real-world readers and writers. Writers' Day at one Pennsylvania middle school was established to bring regular working professionals (not authors or poets) from the community to school to share how writing is used in their professional and personal lives. All participants…

Involvement in community service can benefit middle-school students by helping them feel valued, teaching responsibility, and improving teacher-student relations. A rural Pennsylvania middle school evaluated community-service opportunities and then employed StarServe, a resource kit encouraging students to develop their own service projects.…

Compares pedagogical practices in an eighth-grade middle school classroom with those a of one-room Amish school studied in an earlier work. Taken together, the two settings suggest that one must seek "the present status and performance of the U.S. education system" not in the usual indicators, but in the contradictory beliefs and…

Presents an instructional resource for upper elementary and middle school students that focuses on the life and artwork of Charles Demuth and the impact of community on his artwork. Concentrates on four of his artworks and includes background information on his life and project ideas. (CMK)

The Lewisburg (Pennsylvania) Area Middle School has successfully implemented an alternating-day block schedule that has yielded improved academic performance. The positive effect may derive from administrative support, teacher empowerment, and community agreement. The culture of the traditional schedule and school year remains essentially intact,…

Discusses the implementation of a safe school initiative at an East Greenville, Pennsylvania middle school, following gun violence at the school in 1993. Considers the role of teachers, students, parents, and community in the initiative, changes to curriculum and student activities, special safety measures, and alternative programs for conflict…

Designed for grades six through nine, this manual teaches students how the Pennsylvania juvenile justice system works. It explains what a juvenile can expect if accused of violating Pennsylvania law in the hope of convincing students to stay out of trouble with the law. The manual gives a brief history of juvenile justice and a description of the…