Like school-based management, school-site councils offer some attractive reform possibilities, including broadly based, democratic decision-making; enhanced sensitivity to specific school climates; and widely shared responsibility. Site councils can be ineffective, even harmful, when lacking sufficient support, expertise, and time to succeed. This…

Issues pertaining to thinking skills are discussed in an attempt to clarify what thinking skills are and their components, how they function and how they can be developed in the teaching-learning environment. Chapter 1 reviews the definitions of thinking skills. These definitions are selected from the current literature on education and…

This article examines a collaborative practice-based research project. It recounts the experiences of a kindergarten teacher as she implemented a program to increase family involvement in education. The text is based on classroom documents, parent meetings, and parent interviews. The setting for the narrative is a Basic School, a type of school…

Recent statistics show that nationwide about 50 percent of new teachers leave the profession within their first six years of teaching. In an effort to encourage the persistence of new teachers and to enhance their productivity and competence in the classroom, many school districts have begun supportive programs for the beginning teacher, known as…

Long-range planning is becoming increasingly important for educators in today's rapidly changing society. This bulletin accordingly presents a step-by-step model for school districts to use in developing and successfully implementing a long-range plan. Chapter 1 introduces long-range planning and suggests ways of getting district personnel…

Three writing projects in the state of Oregon, each of which uses a different approach to the teaching of writing, are described in this report. The first section of the report deals with the Coos County ESD Composition Improvement Project, which focuses on writing as a three-step process involving prewriting, writing, and postwriting. The section…

The solution to the problem of violence in the schools lies not only in the protection of students, but the prevention of aggressive, antisocial behavior. This monograph is designed to help schools build a violence-prevention program from the ground up. Following the introduction, chapter 1 discusses how the causes and consequences of violence in…

This bulletin describes a first-grade "readiness program" developed at the Aumsville (Oregon) School District to help children who have been found to be at risk in a standard first-grade program. These students attend a readiness first grade designed to assist their development emotionally, socially, physically, and academically and only…

Partnerships between schools and businesses are becoming more frequent and more reciprocal as the two find common interests; the Salem-Keizer (Oregon) Public Schools provide a nationally recognized example of such a partnership. Salem's program began in 1981 with a joint school board and Chamber of Commerce policy statement. Despite economic…

Research findings and examples of inschool suspension programs in Oregon are combined in this bulletin. An introduction defines "at-risk" students as those having behavioral or attendance problems. Unlike traditional out-of-school suspension, alternative programs attempt to keep at-risk students at school. Chapter 1 surveys three…