Tuscaloosa, Alabama, created a prekindergarten program for at-risk children by bringing together the entire community. With donations and volunteer help, the city managed to fund 19 classrooms serving 275 children.

The Common Core of Standards project has strong national support, but it will not succeed if it doesn't involve teachers in grassroots development activities. The initiative should involve local consortia of schools in working with the new standards, assessments, and support tools. Local teachers would design teaching units and then share these…

Teacher education no longer deserves the denigrating stereotypes it has had in the past. With students who are more academically able than those in the past and with promising new avenues for research, teacher education institutions are on the brink of a renaissance. In addition, the sheer size of the academic teacher education enterprise ensures…

Attempts to analyze what happened to the high hopes for ESEA Title III and how its original direction can be modified to achieve its original goal of promoting beneficial change in American education while lessening the time between development of new teaching practices and their adoption in the classroom. Considers the specific impact of ESEA…

The Holmes Group, a consortium of education deans formed in 1986 to promote teacher education reform, in its first year has had 94 universities join the organization and has been much more successful than expected. But the next few years are crucial to its mission. Discusses the controversies and confusion the organization has engendered. (MD)

Describes an inner city New York City school that has achieved some success in improving urban education. (JF)

Conant's "The American High School Today" (1959) conveyed his confidence in consolidation of smaller schools into comprehensive high schools. The book sparked criticism. Conant's personal papers reveal that his breezy optimism hid doubts, frustrations, and uncertainties. The contradiction in his views foreshadows the turbulent 1960s. (PB)

Explores the basic characteristics of the slum school as a social institution, and examines the relevance of sociological categories for institution building in education. (JF)

Despite need for a high-technology work force, science education has deteriorated since late 1950s. Necessary correctives include more science courses, better science teachers, curriculum reform, more dependable funding, rewards for teaching excellence, and a national curriculum for science education. Business/industry/education partnerships can…

The role of technology in rural Alaskan education is described in relation to seven problems: remoteness; limited curricula; small, multigraded classes; imbedded cultural traditions; dispersed management structures; inadequate training opportunities; and high cost. The issues of control, standardization, and scale are also discussed. (PB)

Data gathered by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) can be used to analyze the relative effects of educational systems in different countries. A simplified example of such analysis utilizes variations among countries, among age cohorts within countries, and between subject matter competencies within…