This article contrasts schools of exclusion with unconditional schools, which are designed to wrap around services to meet the needs of even high-risk students. The author describes essential components of developing a teamwork approach to increase the holding power of schools with challenging students. (Author)

Provides an annotated list of resources dealing with the theme of various types of connections. Includes Web sites, CD-ROMs/software, videos, books, and additional resources with appropriate grade levels and subject disciplines indicated in most cases. Sidebars include toys that connect, connecting with nature, it's a small world-satellites,…

Before 1980, academic-freedom litigation favored teachers over school boards. As a 1998 case involving termination of a popular creative-writing teacher shows, today's judges rely on decision makers' judgement. Courts view academic freedom as the province of school boards and administrators, who determine how it is exercised. (MLH)

Suspension and expulsion should be a school's court of last resort. Before moving straight to suspension, school officials should provide discipline options such as counseling and alternative schools. Describes a rural New York school district where suspension and expulsion are rare. The goal is to keep every student in school so they can learn.…

United States institutions awarded 42,705 doctorates in 1997, the highest one-year total ever, and a 32% increase over a decade ago. Some fields, primarily the sciences and engineering, experienced declines. Data are presented on the demographic characteristics and employment/postdoctoral education plans of doctorate recipients, institutions…

Investigates the structure of attitudes to school subjects and the causal relationship among attitudes, levels of aspiration, and achievement focusing on 280 California high school students. Reveals that attitudes to school indirectly influenced achievement, while aspiration significantly affected achievement and mediated between attitudes and…

In an effort to explain the relationship between democracy and education, this article presents three differing definitions of democracy: liberal, communicative, and deliberative. Argues that deliberatively influenced education makes possible a more rational approach to Denmark's debates concerning democratic education. Provides a brief historical…

States that postmodern approaches to the philosophy of education fall under the common denominator of narrative tendencies, key to which is the idea of a contextual, historical, and biographical self who is real in the here and now, who has a name, face and voice. Concludes that philosophical and pedagogical perspectives of the philosophy of…

We conducted 2 studies to (a) establish the usefulness of the construct of home chaos, (b) investigate its correlates, and (c) determine the validity of the Confusion, Hubbub, and Order Scale (CHAOS) used to measure the construct in each study. Study 1 relied on a sample of European American preschoolers and their mothers and Study 2 on a sample…

This article describes factors that teachers can use to create a task-involving motivational climate, discusses behavioral practices for increasing student compliance, and provides specific recommendations for addressing behavior concerns in the physical education setting. A good teaching philosophy built upon established principles is the best…

Program-level assessments at community colleges are particularly challenging because students often achieve their goals without completing a program, or they select an array of courses that suit their needs but do not fit within an officially recognized program of study.

In this article, the author talks about how to confront racial tensions that sometimes arise among students from different racial groups. Here, the author presents a four-year study conducted by the Social Policy Research Associates, funded in part by Carnegie Corporation of New York, on school-based strategies for addressing intergroup relations…

A content analysis of 20 student conduct codes identified through stratified random sampling was performed to determine the extent to which legal terminology had been eliminated, as suggested by judicial affairs experts. The results showed that 80% of the codes selected in this study still contained some legal terms. These words and phrases are…

Datasets are often under-exploited by institutions, yet they contain evidence that is potentially of high value for planning and decision-making. This article shows how institutional data were used to determine whether the demographic background of students might have an influence on their performance: this is a matter of particular interest where…

Alarming numbers of students, particularly minority students, are being suspended and expelled from our nation's schools. The surface issue is discipline; however, the underlying issues are literacy and barriers to academic success. To address these issues, a large urban district opened a new school for students who were not succeeding in…