The exercise of pursuing greater understanding of riddles, especially of locally Indigenous traditional riddles, is an exercise in observation and perception, of limitation and self-correction, and of infinite persistence--skills essential to cross-cultural, cooperative decision making. This article aims to model a shared experience for teachers…

Self-mastery refers to problem-focused coping facilitated through personal agency. Communal mastery describes problem solving through an interwoven social network. This study investigates an adaptation of self- and communal mastery measures for youth. Given the important distinction between family and peers in the lives of youth, these adaptation…

In 23 brief chapters this handbook provides information about purposes, procedures, legal arrangements, interpersonal relationships and other topics related to foster child care in Alaska. Chapters 1 through 3 are introductory. Chapter 4 gives information concerning Foster Parent Associations and includes a member recruitment form. Chapters 5…

The reflective inquiry model of teacher education uses case methods to develop a particular professional way of thinking characteristic of expert teachers. Teaching cases play an important role in preparing teachers emotionally as well as intellectually for the problems of multicultural classrooms, and in legitimizing the discussion of crucial…

This manual presents a collaborative "situational negotiations" approach to collective bargaining. After a brief introduction, part 1 describes the traditional adversarial bargaining model, using a case study from a medium-sized school district in the state of Washington to illustrate how the aftermath of confrontational bargaining is…

This guide was developed to encourage excellence in education, help educators meet standards, and integrate environmental education programs into school district curricula in Alaska. Educational activities are active, inquiry-based, interdisciplinary, and connected to real-world applications. The following evaluation criteria for standards-based…

This publication focuses mainly on research designed to improve adolescents learning of mathematics. Sometimes it provides insights into interventions to help all students learn more mathematics and sometimes special interventions that focus on the particular needs of nonproficient mathematics students. However, no intervention should diminish the…

This study examined teacher opportunities to learn content subject matter at a summer mathematics institute. The Alaska Partnership for Teacher Enhancement was formed as a collaborative between a university, four school districts, the State Department of Education, the Anchorage Education Association, and General Communication, Inc. It offered…

This curriculum guide lists science topics and concepts, learning outcomes, and sample learning objectives (in three columns), separately for grades 1-3 and for grades 4-6. Topics/concepts, in the first column, describe the major parts of the subject under consideration. They define broadly the content to be included in the study of each subject…

Educational assessment, as it is typically conducted in U.S. schools, does not successfully capture or build on potentially important content knowledge and understanding of Indigenous students. In fact, current policies (such as the No Child Left Behind Act, 2002) are interfering with the implementation of many of the things we know about making…

This report, the third in a three-volume study evaluating day care in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, contains a profile of various day care characteristics and an estimate of the potential impact of the proposed federal day care requirements on current day care costs in the four states. The profile includes data describing the definitions…

Systems thinking involves seeing relationships between the parts to the whole within the school improvement effort. After providing the key principles and examples of systems thinking, the article emphasizes the importance of staff development, highlighting experiences at a Wellesley (Massachusetts) middle school and an Alaskan high school. (SM)

During 1972 Worldwide Education and Research Institute conducted a statewide needs assessment in Alaska. Initially more than 2,000 Alaskans responded to an extensive questionnaire or interview about the State's schools. After gathering the data, 9 groups of representative Alaskans were convened for documenting and validating critical educational…

In 1990, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) included a Trial State Assessment (TSA); for the first time in the NAEP's history, voluntary state-by-state assessments were made. The sample was designed to represent the 8th grade public school population in a state or territory. In 1996, 44 states, the District of Columbia, Guam,…