Out-of-school time academic/STEM programs provide educational enrichment to a myriad of student populations with some designed to assist those underrepresented and at-risk who desire to purse post-secondary studies. One such program in West Virginia (WV) is the Health Sciences and Technology Academy (HSTA), which provides hands-on, in person and…

A reform movement in the United States has focused on STEM education and 21st century soft skills such as critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity. This spotlight on STEM instruction provided an opportunity to explore how K-14 STEM teacher participants perceived a Design Thinking Instructional Problems (DTIP) approach to…

CC Vision -- an urban education reform effort launched to strengthen the cradle-to-career education pipeline in Central City -- provides the impetus for our use of youth participatory action research (YPAR) to gather and activate student voice in the fight for education justice. Student voice can significantly enhance the quality of policy…

In the summer of 2009, a group of teachers, community activists, and university professors came together in a Summer Institute on EcoJustice Education and Community-Based Learning held by the Southeast Michigan Stewardship Coalitions at Eastern Michigan University (EMU). A series of workshops were organized to help participants examine the…

Rhetoric about "all children" abounds in public education, yet many aspects of schooling continues to marginalize large numbers of students. Despite good intentions, the assumptions, attitudes, and conditions that can preclude students' success are often invisible to educational policymakers and practitioners. These students are not…

In this era of high-stakes testing and accountability, curricula are viewed as catalysts to improve high school students' mathematics performances and a critical question is whether single subject or integrated curricula produce stronger student outcomes. This study was designed to investigate the effects of an integrated reform-based curriculum,…

Teachers' centers - popular alternatives for continued professional growth. The center at Greenwich is what the movement's all about. (Editor)

The National Writing Project and the National Geographic Society's Geography Education Program are two highly acclaimed staff development networks that are models for other organizations. Both programs feature intensive summer workshops and numerous followups during the subsequent school year. This paper describes the networks and presents six…

The 2002 NRC Report "Bio 2010" (NRC, 2003), calling for changes in undergraduate education for biologists, suggested the establishment of summer workshops to help implement reform. While the report was in press, Millard Susman, a retired genetics professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and Bob Yuan, a professor at University of…

An organizational climate that provides a participating atmosphere for students, teachers, and parents is essential to the success of an educational program. Describes one junior high school principal's efforts to create such a climate in his school. (Editor/RK)