According to Sam Keen, education's fascination with high technology is taking us into a highly consumptive, urban, competitive, individualistic, and corporate future. Instead, a more organic relationship with the natural world is needed to sustain life. The integrity of rural life and the virtues of self-reliance represent reasonable alternatives…

An introductory editorial essay on responding differently to student differences, the theme of this issue of "Educational Leadership." Addresses problems arising from discrimination and tracking, and cites articles that show how dissimilar students can work together. (TE)

Foremost policy watcher at the Center for the Study of Teaching, Linda Darling-Hammond analyzes the effects of state and district policies on teachers in classrooms, favors full partnership for teachers in decision-making, and points out the importance of the knowledge base for the professionalization of teaching. (TE)

One California high school is motivating at-risk students by giving them the opportunity to produce school publications. (Author/TE)

At Rough Rock Demonstration School in Arizona, a bilingual, bicultural curriculum helps Navajo students discover the power and validity of their own lives as tools for learning. (Author/TE)

Summarizes results of a 3-year national study of performance assessments' effects on teaching and learning, based on visits to 16 schools implementing these assessments. Performance assessments marginally affected curriculum, but substantially influenced instruction and teacher role. Changing assignment and assessment format will not increase…

Herrnstein and Murray's "The Bell Curve" claims that IQ is hereditary and that African Americans consistently score 15 points lower than other racial groups. Coolly received by academics, the book is being warmly embraced by Republican politicians endorsing fiscal austerity and social mean-spiritedness. The book rationalizes a…

Two exploratory studies suggest ways to address Hispanic Americans' education needs. School staff should place value on the students' language and cultures, set high expectations for language-minority students, design staff development to help teachers and counselors serve language-minority students more effectively, and encourage parents to…

Moral purpose keeps teachers close to children's needs; change agentry causes them to develop better strategies for accomplishing their moral goals. Core capacities for building greater change capacity are personal vision-building, inquiry, mastery, and collaboration. Education faculties must redesign their programs to focus directly on developing…

Academic standards are central to reinventing schools and transforming U.S. education. Higher standards are necessary to replace minimal standards implicit in most textbooks and tests. Standards communicate that all students can achieve at higher levels and that teachers are reclaiming the profession. Standards also inspire systemic reform, create…

Exhibitions are one way to exemplify high standards while serving both individual liberty and civic virtue. Exhibitions begin with determination of what students should know and be able to do and proceed methodically backward to define what and how students must be taught to reach those outcomes. Policy options to ensure accountability through…

Development of "Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics" is story of professional community recognizing need, reaching consensus through review and analysis, and conceiving clear vision and reform strategy. Standards were developed to ensure quality, indicate goals, promote change. Lacking profit motive, educational…

Summarizes 25 years of teaching research, highlighting changing implications and developmental continuities. Discusses process-outcome research, including school effects and teacher effects inquiry, and research on teaching for understanding and use of knowledge, meaning construction, subject matter teaching, indepth study of fewer topics, and…

Although scaffolds (forms of support to help students bridge the gap between their current abilities and intended goals) can be applied to teaching all skills, they are almost indispensable for teaching higher-level cognitive strategies. Especially helpful scaffolds for clarifying thoughts, summarizing, and solving mathematical problems are…

Concern over the moral condition of American society is spawning a new character-education movement requiring teachers to create a moral community, practice moral discipline, foster classroom democracy, teach values through the curriculum, stress cooperative learning and conflict resolution, and foster caring beyond the classroom. (MLH)