This document is comprised of volume 12 of the Harvard Education Letter, published bimonthly and addressing current issues in elementary-secondary education. Articles in this volume include the following: (1) January-February--"Early Reports From Kentucky on Cash Rewards for 'Successful' Schools Reveal Many Problems" (Miller), "New Ideas Like Collective Incentives and Skill-Based Pay Raise the Same Old Questions" (Sadowski, Miller); "Recognizing Signs of Stress Is the First Step in Keeping Kids from Living in the Streets" (Posner), (2) March-April--"Whole Language or Phonics? Teachers and Researchers Find the Middle Ground Most Fertile" (Matson), "The Case of Invented Spelling: How Theory Becomes Target Practice" (Miller), "Creating Family Stories Leads Students to a Richer Understanding of U.S. History" (Gow, Davino); (3) May-June--"Perception Versus Reality: School Uniforms and the 'Halo Effect'" (Posner), "Five Reasons Students Plagiarize, and What Teachers Can Do about It" (Tarlin), "Kidding Ourselves about School Dropout Rates" (Fossey), "'But Indians Aren't Real': What Young Children Learn about Native Americans" (Reese); (4) July-August--"Idealists and Cynics: The Micropolitics of Systemic School Reform" (Miller), "Hard-Won Lessons from the School Reform Battle: A Conversation with Ted Sizer,""The Disheartening Work of School Reform" (Sizer); (5) September-October--"Mathematics and Science Standards: What Do They Offer the Middle Grades?" (Wheelock), "Urban Middle-Grades Reform: Foundations Keep Trying" (Lewis); "Goals 2000: Pork or Progress?" (Lewis); and (6) November-December--"Just Like Starting Over: The Promises and Pitfalls of Block Scheduling" (Sadowski), "Getting Kids into the Picture: Student Drawings Help Teachers See Themselves More Clearly" (Tovey), "What's So Bad about the Lecture?" (Birk). Regular features include letters to the editor and summaries of recent educational research. (KB)