Since 1987, Indiana Middle Grades Reading Network, funded by Lily Endowment, initiated a variety of projects designed to promote young adolescents' reading. A Reading Bill of Rights was developed to create communities of readers. Some valuable lessons emerged: attention must be given to teens' reading needs; schools must be central; students need…

Although U.S. Education Secretary Lamar Alexander's strategy includes a track for today's students, emphasis has been on the new generation of schools advocated in the America 2000 plan. This article pleads for concrete steps to improve the education of today's students and recommends a book ("How to Shape Up Our Nation's Schools") to…

To address early care and education challenges, this article outlines some concrete strategies illustrated by several programs, including ALERTA (a multicultural, bilingual approach), the Maryland Certification-Accreditation Project, the High/Scope training of Teacher-Trainers System, a Florida community collaboration project, and the Kennedy…

South Carolina's Teacher Cadet Program, an "experiencing education" class offered to proficient high school students, is helping attract top students to teaching and is renewing teachers without exhausting them. The course enables students and teachers to engage in profound discussions about growing up and stimulates critical analysis of…

This rejoinder to Grant Wiggins on performance assessment suggests that true educational reform will undoubtedly be evidenced by something more substantial than pocket folders bulging with student work. Labeling performance tests "authentic" does not ensure their validity, reliability, or incorruptibility. Such tests are neither replacements nor…

The Texas Scholars Program, a joint business/education venture, is a low-cost program that motivates the "forgotten majority" (lower ranked students) to complete a rigorous academic curriculum preparing them for the labor market or postsecondary education. Since 1989, Eastman Chemical Company business leaders have been…

Discusses implementation and evaluation in moral education pilot projects in Canadian elementary and secondary schools, emphasizing the role and impact of the teacher in teaching of values. (DW)

In 1989, Queens College (New York) launched its Big Buddy program pairing college students with homeless youngsters. Designed to assist homeless children and increase the college community's sensitivity to homelessness, the pilot project helped provide a secure environment, build positive relationships, expand the children's world, improve…

Responding to local businesses' negative comments about area graduates' capabilities, White Plains (New York) Public Schools initiated a pilot work-based-learning program that clearly specified connections between high-school and workplace learning. Five case studies illustrate program goals achieved via individualized apprenticeship plans…

Explores the progress of Fenway Middle College High School, in its third year as a Boston pilot school (an in-district charter-school alternative). Significant areas of autonomy remain untested. Fenway learned the value of an experienced, caring, diverse faculty; networking and reorganization opportunities; and idealism to counter "bigger is…

A 3-year pilot study of alternative assessments for over 500 beginning teachers revealed numerous possibilities, including high-inference classroom observations, semistructured interviews, structured simulation tasks, performance-based assessment center exercises, portfolios, videotaped teaching episodes, and revamped multiple-choice examinations.…

Two national reform movements--one focused on creating small, autonomous schools, the other fixated on a standardization agenda--are basically in conflict. The standards movement is touting the traditional, top-down, centralized, bureaucratic system modeled after Frederick Taylor and his efficiency experts. Progressive, decentralized initiatives…

Institutions prarticipating in the Higher Education for Adult Mental Health Project created model programs to enhance the quality of their responses to growing numbers of adult students. This article describes the project and summarizes the efforts of 18 participating institutions located in the southern United States. (PGD)

The Carnegie structure, involving seven-period days and nine different locations daily, is an ineffective system. The Copernican plan changes school scheduling by lengthening instructional periods for fewer and smaller classes. The system should improve teacher-student relationships, lighten workloads, and introduce innovative evaluation and…