The drive for full inclusion has proven disastrous for certain learning-disabled students who may require alternative instructional environments, different teaching strategies, and special materials. Students with learning disabilities would succeed in regular classrooms if more special-education learning strategies, such as collaborative…

A study of 17 bright underachievers aged 8 to 15 attributed low achievement to emotional issues, peer group pressure, lack of an appropriate curriculum, undiagnosed learning disabilities, and poor self-regulation. Teacher researchers discovered that involving these students in creative productivity reversed the cycle of underachievement. (12…

Although both mastery learning and outcome-based education require students to meet certain criteria, OBE encourages students to assess themselves. Johnson City (New York) Schools stress three outcomes: academics, work and process skills, and attitudes. The key to Johnson City's success lies in clearly defining these desired outcomes, getting…

Massachusetts's school-choice program has seen a significant flight of students and dollars from inadequately funded urban districts to wealthier suburban districts. Despite the Haverhill district's cutting-edge curriculum, many students have transferred because of school location and the district's racial composition. School choice is not a…

Praises the rare teacher who respected his native culture when growing up. Deplores negative attitudes of some future second-language teachers toward Mexican-American culture. Colleges of education can nurture diversity by creating a multicultural environment. Courses should be rigorous and require students to incorporate multicultural concepts…

To thrive in our media-saturated culture, children must become media literate and learn five lessons: media messages are constructed by a few for the many; constructions involve creative languages; different people experience the same media message differently; media are primarily profit-driven businesses; and media have embedded values and…

Schools should anticipate unavoidable problems when implementing a technology plan, project, or program. Technology programs should be built around curricular needs, not gurus. Programs are costly, software remains problematic, and (large) size matters. Blending laptops and desktops is feasible. Faculty consensus helps, and upgrades are…

Virtually every public issue depends on data, projections, inferences, and systemic thinking. Besides basic mathematics skills, numeracy (quantitative literacy) encompasses estimating tolerances and errors, constructing complex computer simulations, using flowcharts, drawing inferences, and calculating in three dimensions. The narrow…

Sustaining reform requires district leaders to develop a supportive infrastructure, nurture professional communities, reduce turnover, and use facilitators to build capacity. Bringing educators up to speed means providing abundant staff development, balancing pressure with support, providing adult learning time, and reducing fragmentation and…

A 2-year demonstration project funded by the Carnegie Corporation investigated combined effects of interventions involving teachers, students, and parents in a small northeastern district with an increasingly diverse population. Teachers examined racial identities and attitudes toward other groups, and designed effective antiracist curricula…

Voucher proposals raise disturbing questions about public information, equity, segregation, and state-church separation. Under Milwaukee's program, which gives poor students public vouchers to attend private and religious schools, participating schools are exempt from open meetings laws, teacher certification rules, statewide testing, and salary…

For-profit charter-school managers may be removing the "public" from public education. A study of 11 Michigan charter schools showed that cost-cutting strategies are adversely affecting student transportation, special education, and the socioeconomic mix of students. Corporations' superimposed bureaucracies have eradicated educators'…

As a political concept, inclusion captures the moral high ground by signifying something more desirable than "exclusion." However, not all parents of children with disabilities view mainstreaming as feasible or desirable. The 1997 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act supports a movement away from full inclusion back to special…

An Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development delegation traveled to school sites in the Caribbean Islands. They discovered similarities regarding education's importance, literacy rates, school governance reforms, and an emphasis on early childhood education and professional development for teachers. Private aid to religious schools is…

During the past three years, staff at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy have developed a partial reconstruction of Whitehead's "one subject matter," a course reconnecting biology, chemistry, earth and space sciences, and physics into an integrated science program. Staff successfully overcame dilemmas regarding thematic…