A group of school districts in Western Oregon has developed a goal-based improvement model that provides teachers and administrators with a common information base. (Author)

Author describes how students in the industrial arts shop at Chinook Junior High School, Seattle, can find their identity in the industrial arts environment and develop the ability to be self-sufficient, productive, and adaptable. (CB)

The Teacher Education and Learning to Teach (TELT) study examined not only preservice and inservice programs but also induction programs and alternative teaching routes. Findings are summarized for subject matter knowledge, accommodation of diverse learners, mentoring, alternative certification programs, preservice programs, and improvement of…

New 9th graders reflect on the worries they had as middle school students about moving into high school. They also suggest ways of easing the transition and providing support in 9th grade. Teens want teachers to connect middle school students regularly with high school students, give them more responsibility in middle school, and focus on…

For enhancing student achievement, the most successful cooperative learning approaches have incorporated two key elements: group goals and individual accountability. Positive effects have been consistently found on outcomes such as self-esteem, intergroup relations, acceptance of academically handicapped students, attitudes toward school, and…

Christian fundamentalists must cease their scapegoating of outcome-based education, since churches, like other organizations, are goal oriented, and OBE is neither public education's devil nor its savior. Since finances are limited, schools should focus on the cognitive/academic domain and embed affective outcomes within it. Making…

Although 360-degree feedback is no panacea for improving schools, it provides educational leaders with data to help them perceive, reflect, articulate, and analyze their own behavior, based on data from a full circle of constituents, including themselves. Face-to-face coaching is a mandatory component. (MLH)

In 1994, the Institute for Responsive Education launched the Responsive Schools Project (involving 14 schools in Las Cruces, New Mexico; Flambeau, Wisconsin; Harts, West Virginia; and Chicago) to ask parents, teachers, administrators, and high-school students about educational reform goals. Respondents' divergent viewpoints underscore the…

Recent research documents students' misconceptions about key math and science ideas, parochial views of history, and tendency to reduce complex literary works to stereotypes. To improve understanding, learners should focus on activities asking them to generalize, find new examples, and apply principles thoughtfully. Teachers should pursue…

In the Los Angeles Unified School District, 64 percent of its 660 schools increased their norm-referenced test scores from 1998 to 1999. Success stems from a clear, districtwide approach to standards-based learning and broad-based communication about student and school gains. Bancroft Middle School's results-driven approach is profiled. (MLH)

Comparison of videotapes of inexperienced and established junior high school teachers on their first, second, tenth, and twenty-eighth days of school provided insight into student needs and the teacher behaviors that set the stage for instructional success. Teacher supervisors can use such videotapes to help orient new teachers. (PGD)

Describes a preservice teacher education program of Gallaudet College where student teachers participate in the Instrumental Enrichment Program to develop their cognitive skills. Includes an illustrated model. (MD)

Systemic reflection, not reflexive reaction, is fundamental to long-term improvement. Business cannot supply schools with all the answers. System change begins and ends with ongoing, authentic questions and conversations about a school's strengths and weaknesses, its vision and core values, its priorities and change strategies, and the structures,…

Discusses hurdles to new principals' success. Principals must respect school culture, including ghosts and heroes; realize that working relationships will change; and anticipate isolation and overwork. Meeting individual teachers, locating the power, keeping central administrators informed, listening and learning, finding mentors, and picking…

In an innovative urban literacy program, K-3 students create a working community, complete with a store, newspaper, post office, museum, and economic system. Using TRALE (Technology-Rich Authentic Learning Environments), teachers create meaningful instruction through authentic, problem-based learning activities using educational technology when…