All educators need to be aware of issues regarding school violence. Recent years have shown that violence can happen in a variety of school settings. This study conducted a one-group, pretest-posttest, pre-experimental design to explore pre-service teachers' perceptions regarding school violence. First, pre-service educators were asked to complete…

Concern about the impact of narrative worlds and their heroes offered by the media prompted research on encounters with moral models in experiential, narrative curricula. Researchers tracked the extension of a mandated Language Arts curriculum on "heroes" through the experiential narratives of four local heroes chosen collaboratively by teacher,…

The goals of this research are two-fold: (1) to survey the literature comparing the effectiveness (as measured by student achievement on state tests) of scripted language arts/reading programs in low-performing schools, and (2) to compare middle school teachers' attitudes (measured in questionnaires, interviews and surveys) on implementation and…

To teach the rigorous skills and knowledge students need to succeed in future college-entry courses and workforce training programs, education stakeholders have increasingly called for more rigorous curricula, instruction, and assessments. Identifying the critical attributes of rigor and measuring its appearance in curricular materials is…

Educators and policymakers have debated in recent years how best to improve academic performance in the middle grades. In the absence of outcomes-based research about what works, school districts have reshuffled grade configurations, bolstered their focus on "academic rigor," and worked to ensure that students are engaged in school as…

Delane Bender-Slack takes on the important subject of teaching for social justice. Her article's strength is in its uncompromising look at complex, often misinterpreted teaching challenges. This article focuses on actual teachers working for social justice in their classrooms. Working from a strong theoretical framework, she pushes us in new…

The newly updated "Content-Based Curriculum for High-Ability Learners" provides a solid introduction to curriculum development in gifted and talented education. Written by experts in the field of gifted education, this text uses cutting-edge design techniques and aligns the core content with national and state standards. In addition to a revision…

Over the past three decades, environmental issues have been on the global forefront and continue to affect people's daily lives. Although the need for environmental attention is at an all-time high, outdoor and environmental education (OEE) plays an insufficient role in school systems. As technology continues to contribute to advancements in every…

Discusses curriculum reform in California. Suggests choosing works that have quality and depict what is universal in human nature in order to select literature that is meaningful to all. (MS)

Presents a conceptual scheme which is to relate minicourses and other forms of elective curricula to the entire language arts program at the secondary school level. (JY)

In language education, several recent curricular developments from expressive writing to interactional reading share a common core of assumptions rooted in British Romanticism. This article compares central tenets of the New Literacy and Romanticism, focusing on the former's reconceptualization of the teacher, the student, and the language arts…

Describes how a group of teachers of grades three through eight initiated and carried out a project that reformed their school's writing curriculum. (ARH)

Explores some of the implications of developing a curriculum that strives for dramatic literacy. (PD)

Describes Michigan's effort to create a state language arts curriculum in the context of systemic reform, discussing the overlapping of various stakeholders with the state and other collectives that emerged. Although Michigan's educational system remains loosely linked, democratic, and contentious, the language arts effort heightened mutual…

Unpacks some of the problematic features of "objectives" as they are used within public school districts. Weaves together what has been learned from working directly with teachers with the historical origins of the professional practice of writing curriculum objectives. Discusses a language arts committee that was unable to produce a finished list…