The feasibility study concerns itself with the possible school district reorganization for the Pawnee and Divernon School Districts. Citizens' committees, boards of education, administration, and teachers provided consultant information about their schools. The evaluation committees, comprised of citizens from the Pawnee and Divernon School…

Over the last several years, an understanding has been developing within the literature as to those elements which can best combine to produce increased student achievement within a small school environment. Many see such elements as, relationships, standards, rigor, student engagement, and others as part of a comprehensive whole. What is not…

By 2008, according to this policy brief, half the states are likely to have adopted high-school exit exams. These exams, which students must pass to graduate, are part of state accountability systems and are above and beyond the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act. This brief discusses high-school exit exams. It begins with answers to…

Arizona's high school dropout rate is nearly double the national average of 9 percent, with a significant number of its dropouts being students from economically and socially disadvantaged ethnic minority backgrounds. The Arizona Minority Education Policy Analysis Center conducted a series of roundtable discussions with school administrators,…

This book explores how standards are negotiated and created within classrooms, addressing how they actually play out in classrooms from the point of view of students and teachers. It follows the experiences of students and teachers at urban Powell High School who wrestled with curricula designed to expand their achievement. The book presents four…

In this unit, students prepare a report on China, specifically on the relevance of key events in China's recent history (The Communist Revolution, The Great Leap Forward, The Cultural Revolution, Tiananmen Square) to its current economic and political changes. Students assume the role of presidential advisors who are expected to know the present…

On February 19, 1942, at the height of U.S. involvement in World War II, President Roosevelt authorized military leaders within the War Department to place all Japanese Americans residing on the West Coast in detention camps. The following months saw the relocation of some 120,000 Japanese Americans, of whom 77,000 were U.S. citizens. The decision…

Three publications on the community college that focus on questions of scope, delivery, and quality are discussed: "The Neglected Majority" (Dale Parnell), "Access and Excellence: The Open-Door College" (John E. Roueche, George A. Baker, III), and "The Collegiate Function of Community Colleges" (Arthur M. Cohen,…

Much has been written recently about the ways many high schools are failing students, but much less has been written about the ways successful high schools manage to maintain standards of excellence for all students, pursuing high academic standards while still closing the achievement gap. This report focuses on successful high schools,…

In Canada today there is a clear move toward a more outcomes-based education system. This report examines the state of high school student assessment and reviews standards and accountability strategies. It reports on the policies, programs, and initiatives in all provincial ministries or departments of education and a sample of school boards…

The purpose of this paper is to inform novice science teachers and science teacher educators of the pedagogy that science teacher supervisors value. As expert practitioners, supervisors have a perspective quite different from that of both novice teachers and teacher educators. Nine inservice science teacher supervisors assessed a novice teacher's…

The Ford Motor Company launched a new pre-engineering curriculum for high schools in the Fall of 2004. Building on an earlier manufacturing program, the development process for the Ford Partnership for Advanced Studies took approximately three years. Ford and the course designers wanted the new program to incorporate the best principles and…

In response to campus crime schools across the United States have instituted rigorous dress codes, and, in some cases, have required students to wear uniforms to school. The president of the local school board has received petitions from several groups wishing to speak at the next school board meeting. The president's political survival rests upon…

This CD-ROM presents six videos that feature veteran middle and high school teachers in action in their classrooms. Each video offers links to supplemental education resources, including innovative lesson plans. The six videos are: "Monsters and Myths" (a humanities unit for middle school students); "The Bleeding Edge" (a thematic…

The New Designs for the Comprehensive High School (NDCHS) project was conducted to develop design processes and specifications for developing new comprehensive high schools, and for restructuring existing schools in accordance with the comprehensive high school model. The project's impact on student learning at two early adapters of the…