Advances in biodesign, in which principles of engineering and technology are applied to the life sciences, are moving out of laboratories and into daily life. However, they have not made their way into K-12 classrooms. Today's students need to become familiar with biotechnologies so that they can make informed decisions about how they will be…

In 2011, the directors of the Phoenix Symphony came up with a bold plan to improve and expand their community outreach programs. Inspired by the growing movement to integrate the arts with the other subjects in the K-12 curriculum, they created a thriving program called Mind Over Music, which pairs professional musicians with local elementary…

Many schools and out-of-school organizations use social-emotional learning (SEL) programs to boost students' skills. Yet research shows that these programs can be difficult to implement and don't always meet students' needs. In response, Rebecca Bailey, Laura Stickle, Gretchen Brion-Meisels, and Stephanie Jones propose a new approach to SEL…

The United States has long struggled with the challenge of educating children experiencing extreme disadvantage, including the poor, ethnic and racial minorities, English language learners, and foster children. In this article, we argue that solutions to this problem lie not to the east or west, but to the south. Specifically, we offer the…

Guided Design, as created and used in the engineering school of West Virginia University, is a procedure in which the teacher models professional reasoning, and shows students how the subject matter they study can be used to make better decisions. (IRT)

The "30-Line Test," 30 lines of prose that must be proofread to determine whether they are mechanically correct, has proved to be a successful method for increasing skills awareness without seriously interrupting the flow of literature or humanities content in a class. (Author/IRT)

Describes a five-stage intervisitation program in which teachers within a department visit each other for demonstrations of teaching methods. (IRT)

The reading instruction methods of Sylvia Ashton-Warner are succeeding in the classrooms of the nine teachers involved in the Vancouver Project. (IRT)

Examines the Schooldisc program developed jointly by the American Broadcasting Company and the National Education Association and compares Schooldiscs with "ThinkAbout," an instructional television series produced by the Agency for Instructional Television. (IRT)

Teachers seeking ways to motivate their students and to make the curriculum more relevant have found an answer in the Paideia Coached Project. When students know that their project or performance will be presented to an audience outside the classroom, they are inspired to produce work of the highest quality. This article discuses the origin of the…

In this article, the authors tell the story of how the Garden Grove Unified School District in California is taking on the challenge of preparing all students for college and skilled careers. Though every student may not plan to attend college, the district has decided that the opportunities made available to students should not depend solely on…

Describes the Organization, Research, Presentation, Accountability (ORPA) teaching approach that involves students in all phases of learning. Results of comparisons of student achievement in classes using the ORPA method and the lecture method are included. (IRT)

Discusses the results of a meta-analysis of the research that has been conducted on the effects of class size on achievement and then outlines a program that is going to field test hypotheses on the subject. (IRT)

Describes a program, involving individualized instruction and classroom management techniques, that has increased the reading skills of one district's students. (IRT)

A cooperative project between middle-schoolers and elementary students makes clever use of a flight theme, and, as the author reports in this article, students' learning soars. In this project, the pilots are enthusiastic members of Ms. Herring's eighth-grade English class at Hampton Roads Academy (HRA) in Newport News, Virginia. The copilots are…