Tunica County, Mississippi, in the heart of the delta, has been home to stagnant academic achievement even as federal and state funds increased. A teacher-focused professional development program through the University of Mississippi helped yield higher scores and national recognition for an elementary school. It also revealed some learnings:…

The Data in a Day self-study program has numerous distinguishing features to help schools strengthen their capacity as learning communities. The program focuses on teaching and learning, involves the entire school community, emphasizes student voice, leads to insights translating into action, affirms strengths, and identifies areas needing…

Current school reform efforts aim to increase the numbers of students who graduate from high school and go on to pursue postsecondary education or training. In this article, the authors look at seven types of career exploration programs to determine if this is an effective approach for accomplishing these goals.

A few Structured English Immersion programs have been developed and tested in the past two decades. The experience of these programs, especially Seattle's, can provide much-needed guidance to California's schools and reformers of bilingual programs. Although not necessarily an all-English program, SEI employs the original language less extensively…

Students with behavioral or learning disabilities are important resources for their community. Through two service-learning projects (reading to elementary-school students and interviewing senior citizens), special-needs students at one New Jersey middle school gained confidence in their skills and developed a sense of pride and community…

To serve early adolescents' needs, a Georgia middle school offers a comprehensive guidance program that includes individual and group counseling, transitional programs, tutoring and mentoring programs to improve academic skills, a conflict- management program to improve discipline, and an incentive program to recognize student accomplishments.…

The New Standards Project, attempting to create an assessment system comprised of performance exams, portfolios and projects, may not have fulfilled its promise to create a national system of tests worth teaching to. However, NSP did deliver high- quality professional-development opportunities for hundreds of teachers across the nation. (Contains…

Describes the Community Service Internship program at East Lyme (Connecticut) High School. The program is designed to help students understand the needs of various segments of the local population while allowing them to engage in community service for a substantial period. (IW)