Five criteria useful in evaluating any discipline model will help evaluators make sense of a complex issue. Discipline policies should be philosophically sound, pedagogically defensible, psychologically appropriate, pragmatically feasible, and professionally evaluated. (TE)

Draws parallels between a supervisor helping troubled teachers and a teacher helping troubled students, using a fictionalized example. Recommends that supervisors use both professional methods and personal relationships to help teachers become more effective. (MCG)

At a new charter school serving predominantly defiant underachievers and special-needs students, a psychology teacher was challenged to implement founders' brain-based principles. She succeeded by establishing a climate of relaxed alertness, immersing students in meaningful experiences, and guiding them in processing their experiences. (MLH)

Several schools that eschewed the middle school model and remained K-8 discovered anecdotally that their students showed fewer behavioral problems and higher academic achievement than many students enrolled in middle schools. On the basis of studies that verified these observations, school district leaders in Milwaukee, Baltimore, and Philadelphia…