Involving stakeholders in school-district assessment and planning provides a common learning experience that results in numerous organizational and professional growth benefits. This paper describes one district's experiences with a middle-grades reform audit, examining the rationale, procedures, and application of the audit and planning process…

Examines the increasing demand for and proliferation of commercial tutoring services for grade school students. Discusses the approaches of several such programs, as well as the goals and attitudes of parents enlisting such services for their children. (HTH)

Hanging onto kids who might otherwise leave school is the mission of the Options Complex at Margaret A. Ireland School in Cleveland. Options Complex is a program for students in grades 6-12 who are behind in school by two or more years. Much of the concern about dropout rates has focused on improving high schools. Experts say that struggling…

Students in the classroom should be provided with engaging activities for improving their computational fluency, making effective use of time, and as a medium of self-motivation. Games such as Contig, the 24 Game, and Number Jumbler are useful for practicing basic facts and computational fluency of mathematics.

SUCCESS@Seneca has teamed up with the General Arts and Science programs at Seneca's Newnham campus. The design of an integrated service delivery model addresses numerous student success and retention related activities by providing the essential connection between academics and college resources. The program focuses on the promotion and support of…

Describes one school district's approach to improving student achievement on standardized tests. Increased scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Test have not been the only positive result of this systemwide effort. Students and parents, for example, have become more conscientious about their course seletions. (CJH)

In 1982-83 the St. Paul, Minnesota, schools introduced computers using LOGO programs into the system. Research shows that, as a result, half the students improved in academic performance, and low-achieving students improved at the same rate as other students. MD)

Progress in programs to identify and develop academically precocious youth are discussed while showing that the age-in-grade basis for education impairs learning quality and extent. A national search for talented youth is described, and a longitudinal mathematics team-teaching program is proposed. (CM)

Discusses human performance technology and performance improvement. Topics include classroom and workplace performance; learner and performer supports, including reasons for learning, tools, and guidance; learner and performer constraints, including motives, capabilities, knowledge, skills, and attitudes; and instructional systems interventions…

Uses a case-study approach to describe and analyze the effects of emphasizing design principles in a technical communication course. Looks at student assignments and at student self-evaluative comments about their assignments. Suggests that focusing on design principles can help students improve the organization and design of their documents. (PA)

Focuses on Johann H. Pestalozzi, James Pierrepont Greaves, and Reverend Charles Mayo. States that Greaves and Mayo disseminated Pestalozzi's ideas and techniques in England. Explains that Pestalozzi and Greaves trained elementary teachers to view students' talents and personal growth as a whole person concept. Argues less effort would limit…

Every Saturday morning La Crosse, Wisconsin, high school students can earn credit for a failed semester without interrupting the rest of their academic schedule. During the first year of Saturday School, approximately 75 students made up failed courses and regained their confidence in their ability to succeed academically. (MLF)

Experiential learning is an educational tool in which students "learn by doing." Briefly stated, "debriefing is the processing of the learning experience from which the learners are to draw the lessons to be learned" (Dennehy, Sims, & Collins, 1998, p. 9). Kolb's (1984) model provides a four-stage framework: concrete experience, reflective…

Education reforms such as "A Nation at Risk" and "Goals 2000" have come and gone. However, educators can be confident that the goal of student improvement shall not pass if the core mission is student learning. The true mission of learning has prompted educators to ponder the following questions: (1) How should each student to…

The "CURA Reporter" is published quarterly to provide information about the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA), an all-University applied research and technical assistance center at the University of Minnesota that connects faculty and students with community organizations and public institutions working on significant public…