For the past 3 years, Miami University (Ohio), in partnership with 11 area schools and affiliated health and human service agencies, has been developing the Institute for Educational Renewal. The Institute, based on the work of John Goodlad, encourages shared responsibility for improving outcomes for students, families, and communities and…

Presents a case study illustrating practical management and quality issues in the transition of a Master of Education course from traditional to distance learning format. Summarizes criteria used to define quality in the course, highlighting concerns about maintaining quality during change, and warns that the short-term appeal of entering distance…

Increased student expulsions have resulted from safe schools policies. The York Region (Ontario) school district established a program for expelled students to continue their education that includes academic learning, social and psychological counseling, life-skills development, work-related programs, and anger management. Students cited small…

Presents a plan for learning in the future, based on a new approach for universally available learning, utilizing existing and developing communication technologies. The L-CS describes the interrelationships between the Learner, a Consultation Agency, a Resource Center and Communication Access Facilities, all of which are linked together on a…

Describes a PEET (Partnerships for Enhancing Expertise in Taxonomy) project designed for undergraduate biology students at Boston University's College of General Studies. Reports that the project used a small group field research setting, facilitating critical thinking skills and group dynamics. Discusses the issue of how to introduce and…

This article responses to comments on "Perspectives on the Future of the IDEA," by reiterating the need to protect the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act's basic protections but change the law to embed current technological advancements into policies that drive educational services for students with disabilities. (CR)

This commentary on "Accountability for All Students: Kentucky's Alternate Portfolio Assessment for Students with Moderate and Severe Cognitive Disabilities" (Kleinert and others), discusses the convergence of the inclusion movement and school reform efforts and the ability of the portfolio assessment to facilitate the inclusion of…

Describes leadership models that evolved during 15 different two-year lead teacher professional development programs in science and mathematics. Analyzes multiple data sources and discusses the views of leadership that emerged from the professional development activities conducted at each site. (Contains 50 references.) (Author/WRM)

Describes the general reform of the educational system in Spain particularly focusing on the science curriculum in the lower secondary schools. Discusses the reform curriculum and teachers innovation, diversity, teacher collaboration, activities and the scientific method in the curriculum, and the changing role of teachers. (CMK)

Explores why Thinking Skills/Cognitive Acceleration programs have struggled to make an impact, noting that classrooms are resistant to the kind of change these programs demand. Considers five constructs of teacher development (socialization, craft knowledge and expert-novice, "pedagogical" content knowledge, images of teaching, and…

An abandoned downtown shopping mall in Burnsville, Minnesota, was transformed into an innovative senior campus that also relieved overcrowding at the main facility. Seniors pursued "community-connections" experiences via programs involving mass media, the transit authority, the battered women's shelter, public affairs, creative writing, and…

College-based programs that motivate underachieving teenagers to graduate and pursue further education is part of a menu of initiatives Guilford County, North Carolina, has introduced to meet the academic, social, and emotional needs of students in its middle and high schools, where racial and ethnic diversity and poverty have been on the rise. As…

This article describes an afterschool program called "Poetic High" in which the author shares insights on the transformation of oneself as a teacher into more of a guide and a mentor. It outlines the process of transforming the attitudes of students from being passive learners into being poets of learning and life. The Poetic High created by this…

Whereas existing learning environments on the Web lack high level interactivity, we have developed a human tutor-like tutorial conversation system for the Web that enhances educational courseware through mixed-initiative dialog with natural language processing. The conversational tutoring agent is composed of an animated tutor, a Latent Semantic…

Home-based programs provide opportunities at a level far beyond what a traditional public school program can offer. To stem enrollment losses to homeschooling, or simply to help families interested in home-based option, public schools are enrolling children and sending them home, where they follow the school's curriculum under their parents'…