This book, written by a father of school-aged children, challenges the idea that school reform must be based on raising test scores. Rather, it asserts that school reform should start by deciding what kind of students it wants to produce and then designing schools that will allow students to develop accordingly. The book advocates a child-centered…

The Dalton School, an independent, progressive school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, was founded in 1919 by Helen Parkhurst. She established a child-centered school that attempted to incorporate the concept of a democratic community within the boundaries of an educational program. The school's innovative program became known as the Dalton…

School-based enterprise (SBE) can be defined as any school-sponsored activity that engages a group of students in producing goods or services for sale to or use by people other than the students involved. The advantages of SBEs include the following: deeper understanding of academic subject matter through application in a practical context,…

The principle of primary education has long been established in the impoverished sub-Saharan nation of Mali, but despite official affirmations in favor of access to education, Mali still has one of the lowest rates of primary school attendance. This booklet describes the efforts of Save the Children/USA in mobilizing community support for 22…

This book provides the steps, methods, and strategies that a team of professional educators successfully used in one school to develop Total Quality Education (TQE). As the final volume in the TQE series, the book is a useful guide for teachers, administrators, and parents in creating the self-renewing school. Seven chapters are based on the…

Amateur radio is a technology and activity that offers great potential when integrated into academic or vocational curricula. Programs with electrical, electronics, and electromechanical content can benefit from the use of amateur radio, and can also enhance language and communications skills. The biggest value of amateur radio may lie in its…

The Urban Mathematics Collaborative (UMC) Project was a 5-year effort to reform mathematics instruction in urban schools by empowering mathematics teachers. Targeting over 3,000 high school mathematics teachers in collaboratives in 11 urban areas, including San Francisco (California), Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), and New Orleans (Louisiana), the…

This paper presents findings of a study that investigated factors that contribute to the engagement of students. Based on the theoretical model of Newmann, Wehlage, and Lamborn (1992), the study examined the effect of instructional approaches of teachers, contextual features of classrooms, and attributes of student experience on students'…

At Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC) in Massachusetts, the Learning Center is the heart of the college's instructional program. The Center houses programs for credit at all academic levels, including some classroom work for 40% of the faculty. The Center is a delivery system for individualized, personalized curriculum at both remedial and…

This paper outlines a framework designed to help school districts evaluate themselves during the implementation of systemic change. Based on the experiences of districts that participated in the NEA Learning Laboratories Initiative, a process called "rapporteuring" was developed. The process provokes the particular site into serious…

Resources to support curriculum renewal in small rural schools are severely limited. This handbook reports how five professional teacher networks expand available resources through the collective efforts of network members. The networks are Big Sky Telegraph (Montana), Alaskan Teacher Research Network, Bitterroot Teachers' Network (the Idaho…

This is the final report of the Microcomputers and Literacy Project, which was primarily concerned with sociolinguistic analysis of written texts and classroom discourse from two urban, sixth-grade classrooms using computers with QUILL writing software. The report argues for and illustrates an approach to the study of writing that integrates…

A study was conducted to determine the feasibility of a distance education network in the Eastern Caribbean. Two types of consultations were completed: a brief site survey of four Eastern Caribbean states (Grenada, Dominica, Antigua, and Saint Lucia) and a workshop in Saint Lucia to which education officials from government agencies and higher…

The concept presented in this document offers an alternative to the traditional structure and ideology of the community college. The "learning college" is based on the assumption that learning experiences are designed to meet the needs and convenience of students rather than those of the institution, its faculty, and staff. Six key…

This paper describes the work of an unusual kind of change facilitator lacking formal authority or educational expertise. Founded in 1993, Partners in School Innovation is a nonprofit organization that supports whole-school change efforts in schools serving low-income communities across the San Francisco Bay Area. It commits to 3- or 5-year…