Field Elementary School in Littleton, Colorado, had previously seen success with its pullout model of instruction for English language learners. However, as the English language learner (ELL) population increased to 42 percent, the school's performance on state assessments dropped, and it was clear that something different was needed. School…

"It's always been a promising time for teacher leadership. It's just never been a successful time," writes noted educator Roland Barth. Why? Barth points to five obstacles: administrator resistance, the taboo in teaching against elevating oneself higher than one's peers, the fact that teachers' plates are full, the…

Fourth grade is a pivotal year, in which students commonly face increased academic demands. According to Anderson, teachers can help students make a smooth transition to 4th grade by introducing these new challenges in ways that are in line with 4th graders' common developmental characteristics: incredible energy and emotion, industriousness and…

Although most schools are formally structured to support a hierarchical model of leadership, the culture within the education profession supports a rich egalitarian ethic. This article discusses the relational model of school leadership, which offers an alternative to the hierarchical model. The relational model views leadership as residing not in…

Originally developed for gifted-education programs, the Schoolwide Enrichment Model can be used in inclusive schools doubling as laboratories for talent development. The model, which provides a broad range of advanced-level enrichment experiences and bases follow-up on students' varied responses, requires three components: a total talent…

Currently, only one-third of U.S. students read at acceptably high levels. Designed for inclusive programs, Reading Styles recognizes that everyone, not just "handicapped" students, has varying strengths and weaknesses. The program identifies youngsters' individual strengths; matches reading methods, materials, and strategies to these…

In the late 1970s, teachers were viewed either as weak links to be circumvented or as technicians to be programmed. Now educators recognize the significance of well-educated teachers being able to assume new powers and responsibilities to redesign schools. This article reviews recent teaching research and explores findings developed at the…

The author explains how a humanistic curriculum can function as a component of systems in which learning outcomes are predicted, and in which students' and teachers' responsibilities are defined clearly. (GW)

Under an Israeli Communities of Thinking model, teaching and learning are organized into three stages: the fertile question, research, and performance. A questioning pedagogy recreates the fertile question, undermines students' assumptions, celebrates questions, imparts knowledge questioningly, coaches research questions, and enables open…

A model presented here offers a framework within which supervisors can respond to differences in teachers by considering relationships among their personal needs, role expectations, and job behavior. (JM)

Systemic (top-down) educational reforms will remain limited unless they improve every teacher's methods and materials. Comprehensive or whole-school reform "scales up" effective schools until many more schools meet state and national standards. The federally funded Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration program provides a supportive…

New roles for teachers in curriculum development conflict with traditional expectations. Constructing curriculum involves teachers' individual flexibility and collective uniformity. This article presents a curriculum-inquiry model that integrates elements of educational practice often dealt with in isolation (instruction, curriculum, assessment,…