For 22 years, at 166 sites around the world, over 1 million teachers have been teaching each other in nearly identical National Writing Project summer institutes. This article discusses the lessons learned about teacher leadership, the qualities of worthwhile staff development, writing instruction, and educational reform's bumpy landscape. (MLH)

"Walking the Talk" (Lozada) describes summer programs in which counselors enroll in summer school courses; "Teachers for Hire" (McClain) shows vocational teachers participating in an externship program updating their knowledge while earning graduate-level credit; and "Earning and Learning" (Lozada) tells how high school students take college-level…

This study examined the academic achievement of 45 incarcerated youth who received an intensive, 6-week summer reading program involving 3 hours of direct instruction and whole language reading activities per day. Significant improvements on 3 of 4 reading tests were found. Overall reading abilities of participants remained low, however,…

Describes a summer externship program in Nevada which offers educators a stipend to spend 90 hours at a summer jobsite in their home community. Discusses the many benefits to educators and to employers. Discusses the author's experience in her summer externship, and the deep influence it had in her second-grade class teaching. (SR)

Project Search trains teams of high school teachers in environmental monitoring methodology in a summer institute. The focus is on applying science to real-life learning. (SK)

Reports on Seeds of Peace, a summer camp that brings together Arab and Israeli teenagers to embark on the process of making peace. Brings together teenagers from nations at war and allows them the physical, psychological, and emotional space to meet each other. Suggests that the concept of the camp works because real peace is made between people…

Examines the effectiveness of Teach Baltimore, a program (using trained college student volunteers) to prevent summer learning loss, for a group of 300 low-income, public elementary students, compared with 135 control students. Except for low-achieving kindergarteners, results show consistent, if statistically insignificant, positive effects for…

Describes a mathematics-focused summer camp for inner city, African American, at-risk secondary school students. Situated on a college campus, the camp grouped participants with college students and professional mathematicians. Results of pre- and posttests indicated that students' mathematics scores increased significantly. Both participants and…

After attending an astronomy camp at Tarleton State University (TSU) for teachers and secondary students in Summer 2002, the author, a kindergarten teacher, was disappointed to discover that the university offered no science camps for elementary students. She returned to her preK-K campus, whining to her principal. What a shame no one would take…

From the program faculty of St. Scholastica's National Institute on Aging Summer Institute on the Psychology of Aging, 7 members responded to a series of questions posed to them in individual telephone interviews. They represented a wide range of disciplinary interests and institutions. Their motivation for participation, their advice for both…

The National Institutes of Health Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA) program introduces research funding into regional universities and liberal arts colleges where hurdles to successful pursuit of research programs are substantial. Nevertheless, the authors of papers in this issue competed successfully and have benefited undergraduates in…

If educators expect more children to be successful in literacy experiences at school, then they must strive to form lasting partnerships with parents (Fried, 2001). The educators working with the after-school and summer literacy program actively sought to form partnerships with family members at a small rural elementary school in a southern state.…

For the past half-century, a racetrack outside San Diego has recruited educators for jobs during the summer break. But earning extra cash is not the only reason these seasonal employees return every year. Del Mar in San Diego, which was opened in 1937 after being bankrolled, in part by Bing Crosby, remains among the best-attended tracks in the…

Jane Schoenfeld's eighteen-year-old daughter and five of her daughter's friends have major learning differences. After searching fruitlessly for a summer class in independent living skills, Shoenfeld relates how she and the parents of her daughter's friends decided to set up their own summer program. They found a facilitator and invited two…

I studied how the grade point averages (GPA, a post-enrollment descriptor) of first-year developmental education students relate to two pre-enrollment descriptors: students' Academic Aptitude Ratings (AAR, a pre-enrollment criterion) and students' voluntary or forced attendance at a mandatory summer-orientation program. Students who involuntarily…