Walking into a new school with a recently earned certificate in one hand and a key to the office in the other is an unsettling feeling. Principals in this position--who often wonder who will help them along the way--need support from an effective principal or administrator. Though corporate leaders often use the phrase "reach behind you and…

The authors examine how a public school culture that has resisted a number of promising reform initiatives could be transformed by a Millennium School model based on four basic principles: a multi-tiered career path for teachers; teaching in teams; performance-based accountability; and ongoing professional development.

Replying to Robert H. Anderson's article in the same "Principal" issue, David Elkind defends his article against classroom rotation. Elkind strongly favors multiage grouping and team teaching, but views the real issue as departmentalization and rotation versus self-contained classrooms. Although multiage grouping and team teaching are…

Responding to David Elkind's article in the May 1988 issue of "Principal," this article reexamines classroom rotation for elementary students, challenges Elkind's argument against this practice, and proposes rotation as a way to increase students' options through team teaching. Includes two references. (MLH)

Middle school scheduling is a major instructional activity reflecting understanding of human growth and development, agreed-on school objectives and purposes, and available human and physical resources. (Author/JM)

Graded school concept, born of administrative practicality and puritanical traditions, has promulgated its lockstep curriculum, its simplistic child development assumptions, and its sexist, isolationist teaching methods since the mid-1800s. Most natural learning environment calls for heterogeneous multiage groupings, within which other groupings…

A junior high school's experience with a team teaching experiment is described. Benefits cited include decreased disciplinary problems, high achievement on standardized tests, and teacher and student satisfaction with team teaching. (MJL)

As a Missouri school's experience shows, mastery learning and cooperative learning can produce more positive results when applied together than when used separately. An agenda for success depends on a strong mission statement, parent involvement, and teacher teams to develop corrective and enrichment activities. (five references) (MLH)

Describes the founding of Washington, D.C.'s Brookland School, a preschool-to-grade-eight facility that embodies the middle school philosophy. (Author/JM)

As part of a statewide pilot program, Florida schools are implementing instructional delivery systems to mainstream more students with disabilities and develop more special/general educator partnerships. Effective coteaching models have common planning time, flexibility, risk-taking, defined roles and responsibilities, compatibility, communication…

Notes the increasing availability of prekindergarten programs for four-year-olds and describes a program that groups four- and five-year-olds together. Covers the program's instructional goals; reasons for using multi-aged grouping, cooperative teaching, and structured planning time; curriculum; interaction with parents; and dependence on the…