A study examining the validity of college student ratings of teachers as a measure of teacher effectiveness is summarized. Student ratings of two instructors cooperatively teaching a course and using common materials were compared with student achievement measures and student assessment of five instructional dimensions. (MJL)

Denmark's decentralized public primary and lower secondary "Folkeskole" system offers nine years of compulsory instruction, "class teachers" who coordinate other teachers, and students who remain in the same groups until graduation. A 1994 law issuing curriculum guidelines and committing teachers to team teaching will…

How, in a presidential election year, the political education of young people can be enormously advanced. (Author)

Shoreham-Wading River Middle School in Long Island, New York, is a place where team teaching, experiential learning, teacher participation, and teachers lunching with students are everyday events. Youngsters do community service, work on a small school-owned farm, take trips to explore career options, and almost never cut school. Strong faculty…

Reform advocates have often recommended using interdisciplinary teams, advisory groups, and transition activities to comprise appropriate educational programs for young adolescents. Using 1988 Johns Hopkins University middle grades survey data, researchers explored "real world" use of these components and gauged their effectiveness.…

Agrees with the recommendation in a preceding article by Gideonse in the same issue that teachers should complete a postbaccalaureate program, but disagrees with Gideonse's advocacy of hierarchically structured teaching teams and an academic rather than a field-based program. (Author/JM)

Overall, the research to date indicates that such innovations, when properly interpreted and implemented, may be a step toward educational improvement and are, in any case, valid alternatives to the traditional mode of teaching. (Author)

The multi-age teams (MATs) at one Georgia middle school fostered continuous, individual student progress unachievable in more conventional classrooms. In MAT groups, assignments to classes were based on students' interests, abilities, performance, and other maturational factors, regardless of chronological age. Opportunities for remediation and…

Two teacher participants in a Georgia multi-age project offer principles for effective middle-school practice. Teachers should include kinesthetic activities and the arts; believe in every student's learning potential; make learning fun and engaging; use interdisciplinary and thematic approaches; assess their progress; and create learning…

Articles in this special section by middle-school educators describe the multi-age team (MAT) experiment at a Georgia middle school from 1993 onward. In 1992, a project inspired by "Turning Points" recommendations addressing teacher and administrator empowerment was launched at another Georgia school. (MLH)

An evaluation of a Georgia middle school's multi-age grouping program revealed significant progress regarding student self-esteem, achievement, community building, and teacher collaboration. The Crabapple experience illustrates how one model of student-centered, developmentally appropriate, and integrated learning can benefit middle-level…

Who says learning always has to be drudgery? Sarah Butzin, the founder of the Institute for School Innovation, proposes "triangulated learning" as a way to give children time to play and develop, even as they pursue high standards. Triangulation is a metaphor for strength. A triangulated learning system taps the power of three to meet…

The author recommends that teachers receive a strong liberal education followed by a two-year postbaccalaureate training program. In addition, the schools must be reorganized to include hierarchically structured teams of teachers headed by those with even further professional training and higher pay. (Author/JM)