Author and education nonprofit leader Lynne Munson recounts how she helped steer an ambitious curriculum development initiative that worked directly in concert with teachers. More than a decade later, district leaders have learned much more about how coherent, classroom-tested, and teacher-supported curricula can transform student learning. With…

Japanese National Institutes of Technology have revealed a plan to strongly promote e-Learning and active learning under the common schematization of education in over 50 campuses nationwide. Our e-Learning and ICT-driven education practiced for more than fifteen years were highly evaluated, and is playing a leading role in promoting e-Learning…

Educators in forty-five states and the District of Columbia are hard at work interpreting and implementing the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) (CCSSI 2010). This work typically involves teacher participation in professional development activities focused on developing an understanding of the content standards as well as the…

E.A. Johnson High School is located in Mt. Morris, Michigan, near Flint, where the city has felt deeply the impact of the area's economic decline. 72% of the student population qualify for free and reduced lunch. The staff was willing to make the changes necessary for success, but needed more than a book study. Many of the structures for…

This brief discusses the Massachusetts' Essential Conditions for School Effectiveness. The conditions articulate the key elements of school governance, curriculum, instruction, finance, training and student services--elements that the State believes every school needs to have in place for all students to succeed. For Massachusetts, these…

Throughout the past two decades, Boston Public Schools has seen strong, steady improvement, recently demonstrated through student gains on NAEP's Trial Urban District Assessment in math and recognized through the award of the 2006 Broad Prize for Urban Education. Teacher leaders have played an important role in Boston's improvement. As team…

As shown by MetLife's 2010 "Survey of the American Teacher," America's educators strongly believe that all students should graduate from high school ready for college and a career (85 percent). Additionally, according to MetLife's 2009 survey, 86 percent of teachers believe that setting high expectations for students will improve student…

An institution-wide focus on deep learning has made significant changes in the biology and physics core course curriculum at the U.S. Air Force Academy. The biology course director has reworked course objectives to reflect the learning-focused approach to teaching, while the physics curriculum has adopted new learning outcomes and ways to…

How many times do teachers wander into their principal's office for advice, support, guidance, or recommendations, only to find that those books on the shelf are outdated or obsolete? How many times have principals attended individualized education program (IEP) meetings and wished they understood all the new provisions of federal laws? And when…

The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) Practice Guide, "Effective Literacy and English Language Instruction for English Learners in the Elementary Grades" addresses the challenge of providing effective literacy instruction for English learners in the elementary grades. The Guide offers five specific recommendations for district…

In an effort to infuse professional and preprofessional academic programs with liberal arts learning, this project at the University of Baltimore (Maryland) resulted in the establishment of a required liberal arts core curriculum for upper division students. The project provided funding for three activities: interdisciplinary team teaching of the…

This final report describes activities and accomplishments of a 3-year, federally supported project at the University of Massachusetts (Lowell) to develop a 4-year general education core program featuring both curriculum coherence and choices in courses for students. The curriculum was developed by faculty working in small interdisciplinary…

At a recent conference, it was proposed that college teaching will be considered a scholarly activity only when professors conceptualize pedagogy as tightly linked to scholarship, that the core curriculum provides an opportunity to communicate about pedagogy, and that faculty should discuss instruction as freely as they do research. (MSE)

Examines the history of curriculum development at Brooklyn College (New York) in order to show that a coherent general education requirement is most likely to address the problem of student diversity. Suggests this core curriculum can be replicated at other institutions. Emphasizes the need for sustained faculty development. (KO)

This guidebook for curriculum planners reports on two specific aspects of the current wave of general education reform: the creation or revival of common or "core" courses within general-education curricula and the emergence of cultural complexity and multiplicity as organizing themes in these new, or newly revised, core programs. The book…