As one of only six states receiving a federal Striving Readers Comprehensive Literacy grant, Pennsylvania has designed and implemented an innovative program that focuses on improved instruction and interventions to ensure every student is literate and graduates from high school ready for college and a career. This report describes Pennsylvania's…

Pacesetting high schools, middle grades schools and technology centers have changed classroom and other practices to prepare students to meet postsecondary requirements and rising workplace needs. The strategies include raising expectations, project-based learning, guidance and advisement, improving students' reading and writing skills,…

Educational reform in the United States is perpetually evolving. Much of the recent reforms have concentrated on high-stakes testing and assessment, but a parallel effort has been emerging in the field of vocational and career education. Prompted partly by federal legislation--most recently by the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act…

Education leaders across the country confront a growing challenge: too many students are not college ready when they leave high school. Although indicators exist to identify students at risk of dropping out of high school, few indicators of students' college readiness are currently in place, and few districts have linked indicators to practices…

This publication discusses plans for an experimental "middenschool" program, which is being considered for adoption in the Netherlands. The middenschool program would extend the period of basic education beyond primary school into the first stage of secondary school, serving students in the 12-16 or 11-15 age bracket. This booklet…

Includes descriptions of 16 of the participating schools written by administrators of those schools. (IRT)

A model developed by Project EMPLOY, a program designed to increase the positive attitude of vocational educators toward the integration of handicapped students, is described. (PHR)

The Science/Technology/Society approach to teaching science has been researched and practiced for over 20 years. This model uses current issues in students' lives and society as the foundation of study. Teaching STS science requires nothing more than a shifting emphasis and willingness to empower students. (MLH)

Walker-Grant Middle School has moved from the traditional failure-oriented method of measuring student progress to one that measures continuous student progress. The concept of standards for each grade and subject was replaced by the concept of "taking the child where he is and working from that point." Under the old system, a student's…

In Boston schools, change coaches and content coaches are offering principals and teachers the kind of professional development that research deems most effective: ongoing, in school, high-quality, and focused on instruction and teacher cooperation. To succeed, coaches must be (unrecognized) leaders who unobtrusively foster teacher leadership.…

The Upward Bound Project for low income youth in Florida emphasizes humanistic education rather than education based on the capitalistic model of production, consumption, and competition. The project, which can serve as a model for education in developing countries, focuses on creating self-concepts and values to counteract those of an acquisitive…

This practicum report describes a year-long effort to reorganize a large urban junior high school according to the "house plan" concept, in which the school is organized administratively and geographically by grade level, rather than by academic department. The reorganization plan involved five major changes, including relocation of departments…

Based on a model of local curriculum development, but incorporating the ideas first expressed by Goodlad in establishing a league of co-operating schools for the improvement of learning, this curriculum development project successfully infused the study of technology into the science courses of several British secondary schools. (RM)

This report describes a project dealing with the development and implementation of a model for training the interpersonal aspect of competence. The project had four purposes for the student participants: (a) increase the interpersonal competence of students who previously exhibited deficiencies in interpersonal relations; (b) lessen the…

A study was designed to assess the attitudes of principals, guidance counselors, home economics teachers, and male students about male participation in home economics. Projects, activities, and strategies that can be developed and used in most schools are described. (JOW)