Reports on what researchers discovered in their study of five urban school districts that were labeled "innovative." Provides a conceptual framework that takes into account five factors that seemed critical to a district's success or failure in implementing change. (Author/IRT)

A Lockheed flight controls engineer describes how, as an undergraduate, he taught first graders basic lessons in physics and engineering by using slides, monkey bars, and other playground equipment to demonstrate principles like gravity, friction, force, and inertia. The children learned more about lift and gravity by constructing and flying paper…

Discusses the results of two studies comparing charters schools with traditional schools. Both studies suggest that charter schools are more successful in retaining better teachers than are traditional schools. Finds, for example, charter schools are much more likely than traditional public schools to employ teachers who lack regular state…

New Zealand educators have some ideas worth stealing, including morning tea-time, the lie-flat manifold duplicate book for recording classroom observation comments, school uniforms, collegial planning and grading of college assignments, good meeting etiquette, a whole-child orientation, portable primary architecture, group employment interviews…

The improvement of international education in U.S. schools cries out for strong national leadership. The authors, guest editors of this special section, make the case that helping students become globally competent citizens is crucial to the future prosperity and security of the United States, and they discuss strategies for making this happen.…

Discusses the proposals of some American educational authorities who favor smaller, more diverse high schools with greater emphasis on action learning, career education, and alternative educational programs. (JG)

Hundreds of Kappan readers voiced approval of -- and doubts about -- Maurice Gibbons' proposal for new forms of transition to adulthood. (See related article, Kappan May 1974, p. 596.) (Editor)

A fictional "look back" at changes in education from 1985 to 2005 predicts that the "excellence" movement and the "microcomputer revolution" will have peaked in 1985 and given way to a "productive schools reformation" based on more practical uses of many new forms of technology. (PGD)

Describes a center--a highly developed play space--to teach sensory concepts (up, down, in, out, above, below, sweet, sour, hot, cold, loud, soft, and others) to blind children. (Author/JF)

Time is running out for social studies revision. If the social studies profession hopes to resurrect credibility with youth, every teacher must consciously move to relate his courses to the value dilemmas of youth and the value-laden issues of our time. (Author/JN)

Two educators report their initial reactions to the Parkway Program in Philadelphia. (MF)

First in a series of successful innovations reported by readers, the article describes the "House Group" concept at Shoreham-Wading River (New York) High School. The House Group emphasizes the individual relationship between a student and an adult adviser who serves as advocate and mature "friend." (Author/MLF)

The second in a series, this article reviews the history and development of Nova High School in Ft. Lauderdale (Florida), one of the most widely hailed innovations of the 1960s. (Author/WD)

Educational technology can be a catalyst for creating new learning structures. For the past six years, Central Harlem's Earth Lab project has been designing, implementing, and observing effects of a local area network system intended to facilitate collaborative work in elementary earth science. System coordinates small groups, promotes teacher…

Schools are operated at two levels: practicing teachers and administrators and nonteaching educationists. U.S. Education Secretary Lamar Alexander has no real relationship with teachers (school assembly-line workers) or parents more concerned about sex education, ethnic representation, and library contents than "world class" standards.…