Explains why the national standards effort in education failed, discusses the existence and diffusion of current standards, and describes how credible national level standards might be developed. Development recommendations include brevity; concentration on skills required for student advancement; the need for review, revision, and field testing;…

Provides strategies that can help middle and high school bands improve their articulation in ensemble performances. Focuses on the clarity of the beginning of a note and how a tone is released. Offers rehearsal techniques that can help ensemble students produce consistent note length and expressive articulation. (CMK)

Examines collage as a symbolic activity in early childhood education. Finds that collage is used in a number of ways by young children and, in addition to being a manipulative and expressive activity, there appears to be a general progression toward incorporating symbolic elements in their collages. (CMK)

Discussion of the secondary school reform project at Brewster Academy (NH) focuses on the School Design Model and how technology has been used. Highlights include curriculum authoring tools; professional growth tools for teachers; and results of a longitudinal study that show improvements in SAT (Scholastic Assessment Tests) scores. (LRW)

Considers the use of observation in the classroom as a means of student assessment. Focuses on developing an observation instrument, the scoring criteria, and using progress-based rankings rather than static rankings. Provides an example teacher observation form. (CMK)

Demonstrates how teacher inquiry offers a way to study and implement character education by exploring teacher inquiry projects at a Professional Development School. Presents background information and describes four different types of inquiry. Provides examples of how character education principles connect with teacher inquiry. (CMK)

Discusses musical activities that foster early literacy development according to six different early literacy instructional goals: (1) children's learning of concepts of print; (2) a sense of story and sequence; (3) phonemic awareness and phonics; (4) background knowledge and vocabulary; (5) basic spelling patterns; and (6) early writing…

Reports an evaluation of the effectiveness of a volunteer tutor reading intervention. Indicates that children receiving the volunteer intervention failed to make greater progress than same-school controls. Considers possible reasons for the apparent intervention failure. Concludes by cautioning against simplistic expectations that adult support…

Investigates the relationship between the curriculum structure and the learning of Chinese. Analyzes the characteristics of the South East Coast Version of the junior secondary school text from Chinese Mainland to inform the teaching and learning of Chinese in Hong Kong. (CMK)

States that the daily newspaper holds an important place in society although it has experienced increased competition from the electronic media market. Contends that schools need to transmit media competencies, explaining that a newspaper project is an ideal means for imparting media competencies since students are acquainted with this medium.…

Argues that recent events have made poetry more relevant to teaching sociology and discusses the benefits of using poetry in the sociology classroom. Provides three examples to illustrate the use of poetry as an instructional technique in a social inequality course. (CMK)

This article reports results showing that the Independence, Missori school district failed to meet almost every one of its improvement goals under the No Child Left Behind Act. The state accreditation system stresses improvement over past scores, while the federal law demands specified amounts of annual progress toward the ultimate goal of 100…

This brochure makes a case for devoting more attention to writing, and demonstrates through recent research results that the National Writing Project (NWP) has had a positive impact on teachers and students across the country. Independent national scorings of student writing show that NWP student improvement out paces that of students in carefully…

In 2000, the state of Nebraska passed legislation requiring the assessment of student performance on content standards, but its requirements were very different from those of any other state. Nebraska created what has come to be known as STARS (School-based Teacher-led Assessment and Reporting System). Under STARS, each of Nebraska's nearly 500…

This document traces the steps take by a rural school district to design and implement a research-based staff development program to train all teachers, K-12, to be teachers of writing and to produce students who would be writers. The three-step process involved: (1) needs assessment; (2) staff development planning; and (3) evaluation. Public…