This review of the literature on the current state of parent and community involvement looks at the programs and practices, and their effects, in the research and practice literature, especially since 1980. The review explores past history and offers a contemporary view of the policies, trends, and factors that provide an understanding for the…

The Mathematics Assessment Process (MAP) for the Middle Grades gives teachers and school reform leaders new tools to examine and systematically realign mathematics programs. MAP engages an interdisciplinary coalition within a school in an exploration of mathematics instructional excellence. Through an extensive self-study, a school answers the…

Picturing Peace is an ArtsBridge collaboration in which K-12 students learn to use digital cameras to communicate their feelings and ideas about peace. The photographs of three student cultures were analyzed. Both local and universal symbols of peace were found, such as nature, light, community, environment, peace signs, play, spiritual symbols,…

This course of study provides the framework for the content of a program in industrial arts/technology education. An introduction describes industrial arts/technology education, lists goals, and presents suggestions for meeting the needs of special populations. A conceptual framework is provided that organizes required minimum content for the…

Papers sponsored by the Language Awareness Working Party, a task force of Great Britain's National Congress on Languages in Education concerned with common concerns of professionals in all areas of native and second language instruction, include: "The Report of the Language Awareness Working Party"; "Language Awareness in Six Easy…

The San Diego City Schools (California) has received nearly $500,000 in federal funds to replicate and evaluate the following successful dropout prevention programs: (1) Motivation and Maintenance (M and M); (2) Partnership Academy; and (3) Summer Training and Education Program (STEP). The M and M program is designed to provide a case management…

The 1987-88 Home-School-Community Agents (HSCA) Project of the Columbus (Ohio) Public Schools met its goal of improving the attitudes of 50 percent of the disruptive students enrolled in the project toward teachers, education, and school behavior. Nineteen HSCAs served in 8 high schools and 11 middle schools. Each HSCA worked on an in-depth basis…

The extent to which the issue of nuclear war technology is treated in middle-school science texts, and how students learn about nuclear war and war technology were studied. Five raters compared the most widely used textbooks for grades 6 and 7 to determine the amount of content on: (1) population growth; (2) world hunger; (3) war technology; (4)…

Computer-assisted instructional (CAI) lessons were incorporated as instructional support for a one-semester course in occupational information for 122 eighth graders at a selected middle school in the Dallas, Texas, Independent School District to field-test five modules (fifteen color videotapes and fifteen CAI lessons) focusing on career…

The document presents 35 supplementary activities on American politics. The activities are designed to be used by social studies classroom teachers in elementary and junior high schools. Topics include voting, elections, presidential qualifications, presidential activities, congressional duties, political participation, term of office, political…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) U.S. Department of Education Holds High School Summit: Diploma Should Be a "Road Map to a Prosperous, Purposeful…

The San Francisco Beacon Initiative (SFBI) has been in effect in the San Francisco Unified School District since 1996. A collaboration of public and private funders, SFBI operates comprehensive after-school programs in six middle schools, one elementary school and one high school. Public/Private Ventures' (P/PV's) evaluation found that SFBI…

The Families in Education Program of the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction has existed since 1987 to increase awareness of the need for schools to involve parents as partners in the education of their children. This parents' and teachers' guide presents ways that the theme for American Education Week, "Teaching Children To Think and…

This study investigated whether a Professional Development Practicum (PDP) at Pennsylvania's Millersville University had an impact on the educational values of PDP student teachers, especially those related to middle level school reform. Researchers designed a 2-semester study to assess changes in educational values of student teachers placed in…

This study presents the case of a preservice science student teacher who wanted to make the science classroom an equitable place of learning. The paper focuses on her cross-cultural student teaching experience in an urban middle school. Data were gathered from in-depth interviews conducted throughout her student teaching experience, a journal in…