Discusses issues to be considered in efforts to determine whether programs are effective for improving education of all middle school students. Details directions effective programs are taking in mathematics, reading, writing and language arts, thinking skills, science, and social studies. Discusses common components of the programs. (BB)

A unit on butterflies in a first grade classroom gave the children scientific knowledge and incorporated subject areas other than science. (BB)

Reviews the history and uses of standardized testing, and suggests alternative methods of assessment. States the belief that testing exerts undue pressure on children, provides no useful information on individual children, and limits educational possibilities. Discusses the Association for Childhood Education International position paper which…

Adventure-based physical education programs that consider students' developmental stages can best foster skills that reflect positive personal and social responsibility. Elementary students need basic skill instruction, a variety of noncompetitive activities, and a supportive environment. Short debriefing can be added for middle school students.…

Discusses the advantages and disadvantages of adding school-age children to family child care programs, based on personal experience as a family day care provider. Notes that a safe, nurturing environment is as important for school-age children as preschoolers. Suggests that every family child care provider's capacity and program needs are…

A White teacher of Lakota third graders describes a year in which her class did not use textbooks. Instead, Lakota culture and history were the basis for learning activities such as writing down legends and transforming them into plays, creating and populating a model town, and writing mini-research papers about the Black Hills and Lakota sacred…

Seymour Papert, who holds the Lego Chair for Learning Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, looks back over a decade during which American schools acquired more than three million computers and assesses progress and resistance to progress. Stories about visionary teachers who have used computers to enrich learning provide a…

This monograph (in both English and French) examines the impact of poverty on children, with particular reference to the situation of poor children in Canadian elementary and secondary schools. Section 1 briefly introduces the topics of education and poverty. The link between poverty and children's physical and mental health and educational…

This report discusses the education of Latinos, Blacks, and low-income students in California. Over the past 10 years, California's society has shifted from a predominantly White to a predominantly ethnic society. The number of the state's people living in poverty has increased, and poverty has been concentrating in big cities. The achievement gap…

Noting that there exists little systematic and conclusive research on after-school education to guide the development of practices in this emerging field, this book contributes to the definition of after-school education by focusing on three essential aspects of such programming: (1) bridging school to after-school (2) homework, or extended…

Education may promote the development of students' whole-person identity formation--the spiritual, psychological, social, emotional, and intellectual. This paper considers how identify formation and self-esteem are related, how parents form the foundation for identity, and how teachers can contribute to further growth. Erikson's theory of…

This brief paper is a response to a reanalysis (Krueger & Zhu, 2003) of a report (Mayer, Peterson, Myers, Tuttle, & Howell, 2002). The response is offered by two of the authors (Myers & Mayer) of the original report. The original report presented an evaluation of the impact of vouchers on students' reading and mathematics achievement…

Educators working to improve dropout prevention programs should closely examine the development of defensive overlays in children's world views. Efforts to neutralize defensive world views within existing dropout prevention initiatives should refocus efforts to be more holistic. Such neutralization may best succeed in small schools. (SM)

This article presents the traditional view of schooling as a barrier to reform; it explicates the learner-centered vision of schooling as an alternative, identifies the underpinnings of the learner-centered approach to schooling, and explores how this vision of schools as learner-centered environments might be enacted. (SM)

Discusses the relationship between motor skill and speech-language development and delays, the roles of physical education specialists and speech-language pathologists in teaching children in inclusive settings, the collaborative consultation that must occur between the two professionals, and a model training program that emphasizes such…