Leadership is often conceptualized and taught through famous, world-changing individuals; however, leadership spans levels of influence, from small-group projects to global initiatives. While student leaders are present at every level, existing leadership research and programs center adults. Within this article, Lisa DaVia Rubenstein, Sydney…

In the 21st century, what does a defensible, equitable model of gifted and talented student identification look like? For too long, gifted education's reason for being has been unclear, and the students it has served have been from too narrow a segment of the student population. With renewed attention to equity and personalized learning, gifted…

Schools exist to educate, yet the emphasis on age-based, grade-level standards fails to account for the wide range of academic readiness that exists in every classroom. Special education programs exist to meet student needs; gifted education should be no different. The authors, all gifted education researchers, present a vision for a model of…

In many schools, librarians play a key role in teaching information literacy and inquiry learning. From a survey of Colorado librarians, Keith Curry Lance and Leslie Maniotes learned that librarians who regularly facilitated student-led inquiry activities were also more likely to teach regularly a number of information literacy skills. Librarians…

The flat structure of American schools is ill-suited to meeting today's demands for education improvement. Historically, American schools have addressed this instructional support deficit with a patchwork of poorly defined roles and responsibilities--underused department chairs, fitful coaching models, and informal teacher leaders who generally…

Maligned and revered, exemplified or reviled, almost every discussion about charter schools involves a tangle of differing histories, theories, values, and facts. Worse, many times the parties to the discussion aren't even aware they're operating on different planes of discourse. A sort of mental gridlock often results. But by separating…

Lindsay Unified School District (California) exemplifies the promise of competency education (or performance-based education, as it is called locally). Since beginning its transition to the model in 2009, discipline problems have sharply dropped, the school climate has dramatically improved (as measured by the California Healthy Kids Survey), and…

Committed to being a charter school with a professional learning community that empowers teachers, New Mexico's South Valley Academy (SVA) staff transformed its state evaluation process into a practitioner action research process (Anderson, Herr, & Nihlen, 2007). While teachers self-diagnose growth needs and play active roles in improving…

Renaissance School is part of a network of Expeditionary Learning (EL) schools that was borne of a collaboration between the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Outward Bound, USA. The EL model is centered on the Outward Bound ethic of having youth work together to achieve a task. EL schools take an approach to teaching and learning that…

The physical, psychological, cultural, social, and organizational elements of a learning environment are as important as the learning opportunities themselves. The Apple Store blends retail and school into a new type of learning environment that lets the customer learn anything, at any time, at any level, from experts, expert practitioners, and…

An urban school district's model for procedural due process designed to meet the requirements of the Goss decision. (IRT)

Outlines five contemporary images of the model learning scene--the bazaar, "just be," amusement park, praxis, and Siddhartha. (Author/IRT)

Describes Project Intercept in Ossining (New York), which cut the high school's dropout, absence, and failure rates by involving teachers, students, and families. The program uses four major strategies--teacher/staff inservice training, alternative academic programs, student training in social and interpersonal skills, and family intervention…

Teachers need to match discipline methods with children's developmental levels. Young children need interventionist techniques stressing teacher power and control. Older children thrive when teachers employ strategies to enhance student involvement and self-discipline. A few other youngsters move to a self-directive stage; these students need…

Today's "just say no" approach to moral education is as simplistic as the values clarification emphasis of the 1960s and 1970s. One solution is to combine the best approaches of past decades. The Comprehensive Values Education model is progressive and all-embracing in content, methodology, and application throughout school and community.…