Risks are taken in establishing alternative school programs but they can be minimized by giving the proper attention to several critical factors. (Author)

"Countering society's negative messages requires a planned, comprehensive approach that involves students, support staff" and the community, says Linda McKay, director of the Personal Responsibility Education Process (PREP) for St. Louis, Missouri, schools. Area schools have selected 49 different values as a focus for character…

Describes a model international program for educating physicians about alcohol-related problems, focusing on the initiative's "trainer-development" approach and critical issues in implementing the program in other countries. Also describes the successful implementation of the program in Poland. (MDM)

Describes the organizational framework and implementation of a literature-based reading program with basal themes for a combination of students in grades five and six. Discusses students' attitudes towards the program, which were very positive. (SR)

While the use of computers has become widespread in recent years, a unified, integrated approach to their use in the medical school curriculum has not yet emerged. Describes a program at the University of New Mexico that will phase-in computerization of its curriculum beginning in the fall of 1993. (LZ)

Reviews progress in the establishment of a nonprofit preschool at an orphanage in Bucharest, Romania. Topics include recruitment of volunteers, collection of supplies, integration of neighborhood and orphanage children, the use of Piaget's learning-through-play philosophy, children's responses, staff training, and current activities. (AC)

Describes the background and context of how action research has grown in the Madison (Wisconsin) Metropolitan School District--the organization and process being used to help teachers and principals work on their research questions, the value of the experience as perceived by the participants, and lessons learned about implementing action research…

Describes and evaluates a reading/study skills program at Ferndale High School, Ferndale, Washington. Notes that the high school has changed dramatically over the four years of the program, and its reading/study skills program continues to be an integral part of this evolution. (RS)

Describes one elementary school's efforts to increase parental involvement in its day-to-day operations. The procedure adopted to expand parental involvement included analysis and selection of the school's needs, goal setting, parent training, spreading the word, outreach to parents unable to come to the school, ways of showing appreciation to…

The Texas Scholars Program, a joint business/education venture, is a low-cost program that motivates the "forgotten majority" (lower ranked students) to complete a rigorous academic curriculum preparing them for the labor market or postsecondary education. Since 1989, Eastman Chemical Company business leaders have been…

Character education's goal is to help young people know, care about, and act on core ethical values such as fairness, honesty, kindness, respect for others, and responsibility. In this interview, a high school principal in Memphis, Tennessee, explains how staff implemented a separate character-education course. (MLH)

The "clearness committee," a Quaker practice, might provide an avenue for educators grappling with crises and seeking clarity about their worries and concerns over time. A Lewis and Clark College seminar held in April 1998 dealt with an administrator's fears about carrying on following a former student's suicide. Steps for freeing one's…

When introduced a decade ago, development planning was regarded as a strategy to help (British) schools manage change. Recent evidence suggests that schools exhibiting "best practice" in development planning have transcended this usage and now employ development planning to enhance pupil achievement. This paper examines the latter,…

An interaction of processes (e.g., design, implementation) and elements (e.g., curriculum) form a matrix for language teaching programs. The concept of stakeholders within this program matrix is elaborated: learners, teachers, administrators, and controlling authorities. A worksheet is appended. (Contains 56 references.) (Author)

Takes a critical look at various tendencies within the current generation of approaches to family literacy programs. Groups these tendencies into three broad categories: intervention prevention, multiple literacies, and social change. Notes a danger in glibly assigning any given program to one category or another. (RS)