In the years since its origin in 1997, the Reading and Writing for Critical Thinking (RWCT) project has become a wellspring of human stories about teaching and changing, about reaching across cultural and language divides to find deep conceptual and interpersonal harmonies that lead to reform. This collection presents chapters written by educators…

This study examines the impact of the Pennsylvania writing assessment policy on writing instruction and teaching methodology. Drawing on self-reported teacher perceptions and classroom practices, the study also attempts to identify the factors that influence teacher beliefs and their use of materials and processes related to the state writing…

This issue brief reports on accountability policies and practices for elementary students with emotional and behavioral disorders in private and public day treatment and residential schools. Between January 2001 and March 2002, a study was conducted of these schools, gathering responses from 271 principals and 229 teachers. Major findings…

This book explores the creative opportunities offered by information and communications technology (ICT), and provides an authoritative survey of the ways in which ICT is currently transforming core teaching functions. The contributed chapters in this book are organizes around these core processes of learning and teaching: subject matter…

The 15 essays in this collection examine and challenge the assumptions and beliefs underlying the theory and practice of gifted education today. Essays are grouped into three sections which consider first, reconceptualizations of giftedness; second, gifted education and equity; and third, the practice of gifted education (identification,…

A European conference convened 90 participants from 14 countries to consider "other ways of learning," such as experiential methods and aesthetic-sensual perception, which have been marginalized by the overemphasis on instrumental rationality in our societies and schools. This proceedings presents 18 papers and paper abstracts on outdoor…

This guide is intended to help school administrators to consider the impact of cultural diversity in the development and implementation of school disciplinary policies while complying with the 1997 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. First it examines how cultural bias, misunderstanding, and insensitivity may impede student and teacher…

In 2001, a decision by the New York State Supreme Court in a landmark school funding case, Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE), Inc. v. State of New York, declared the current New York state funding system unconstitutional and ordered the legislature to replace it with a new cost-based system that ensures that every school district has sufficient…

Teachers need to stay abreast of the latest trends in the language arts to offer an updated curriculum. The language arts areas are vital in each academic discipline and integrate well with diverse subject matter areas. Some common trends when reading the literature on teaching the language arts are: portfolios; journaling; computerized reading…

When teaching writing to adult learners, teachers must achieve a balance between "content" and "mechanics." The first step is to assign "real" writing for "real" purposes. The next step is to teach the writing process more than the product and teach the place that correct "mechanics" (spelling,…

The goal of the Southern Regional Education Board's (SREB) Making Middle Grades Work initiative is to increase the percentage of eighth-graders who perform at the proficient level in core academic subjects and who leave eighth grade ready for college-prep work in high school. This document contains a comprehensive improvement framework to aid in…

A number of educational and societal trends are analyzed for their potential impact on the practice of distance education. The trends reflect the various ideologies and values currently found within professional communities and publics at large. How the various trends push and pull in different directions, and how they may lead to alternative…

Higher education and learning calls for a human process, an interaction between facilitator and learner. A customized approach to individualized problems is more than just electronic delivery. The crucial issue is not the mode of delivery, but the skills required to facilitate learning. Unfortunately, evidence of a subtle re-definition of…

This report, the forth in a series from the spring 1998 national survey, "Teaching, Learning, and Computing," examines teachers' survey responses that describe the frequency with which their teaching practice involves those five types of activities and the frequency with which their practice involves more traditional transmission and…

This document contains three papers from a symposium on linking human resource development (HRD) theory and practice that was conducted as part of a conference on HRD. "Development towards What End? An Analysis of the Notion of Development for the Field of Human Resource Development" (F. Peter Kuchinke) examines the following alternative views of…