This paper describes the First Year Program at Westminster College in Pennsylvania, which has implemented a new, progressive curriculum that prominently features the basic communication course, and an initial attempt to evaluate the program. The paper begins with a description of the content and goals of the basic communication course, which is…

This paper discussed using vertical teaming as a way to organize multi-year curriculum planning for academically talented adolescents. Vertical teams include educators from different grade levels in a given discipline who work cooperatively to develop and implement a vertically aligned program aimed at helping students acquire the skills necessary…

The shift to new paradigms in education pushed by new media has initiated a critical rethinking in the conversation about and practice of teaching and learning. This paper proposes a new description of curriculum design based on a traditional conceptual knowledge framework. The goal is to make a theoretical contribution for interpreting the…

This paper discusses the development of the Basic Skills Model, a theoretical framework that has enabled North Carolina educators to propose to the Department of Public Instruction the development of a curriculum for high school juniors and seniors with disabilities. The curriculum is designed to enable students to gain the necessary skills to…

This issue describes promising research and development in the use of universal design principles to ensure curriculum access. It defines universal design and describes the differences between universal design and assistive technology. The activities of the Center for Applied Special Technology, the National Center to Improve the Tools of…

During the last two decades learning communities, which are felt to have benefits that extend beyond students to faculty and the institution, have expanded to include many different models. This digest reviews five major higher education learning community models currently in existence: (1) Linked courses, which link cohorts of students taking two…

This paper provides an example of how elementary school curriculum leaders can be mindful of student intelligences and can utilize the strengths of their student populations. It presents the findings from a national study that examined how 17 schools using a curriculum based on Multiple Intelligences Theory improved the self-concept and positive…

Much about designing learning experiences and supporting environments has been learned from the New Designs for Learning process. Looking at the history of education in the United States and high school change initiatives in other countries, project staff have found that designing schools for the future is a learning process in which staff,…

This report summarizes Austin Independent School District's (AISD's) prekindergarten program activities and student performance results for the 2005-2006 school year.

The author comments on Barbara H. Mickey's article, Designing the External Degree Program. (PG)

The purpose here is to consider the need for the official (legal) and professional creation of three distinct entities within the public school systems: elementary, middle, and secondary schools. (Author)

With the aid of technology, a teaching-learning situation geared toward the student as an individual has been under development for several years at the Music Library Laboratory Center of John J. Duggan Junior High School, Springfield, Massachusetts. (Author)

"From the findings of this study it can be inferred that experiences in the art class can have an important role to perform in developing the visual sophistication of disadvantaged learners... the art teacher is the key to effect behavior changes in disadvantaged learners and not in art, per se. (Author)