Three very powerful drivers of curriculum policy are converging to shape what is taught in American schools: the increasing power of testing and standardized accountability models to determine curriculum, the pressure for cultural literacy, and the educational restructuring movement, which could subordinate curriculum to school organization…

Announces the American Association of School Administrators annual awards for original research of direct interest to practicing administrators. The 1989-90 awards went to Edie L. Holcolm for research on support for new principals; Lou Ann Dickinson for a study involving student achievement and career ladders; and C.M. Achilles for work on class…

Suggests that traditional measurement-based approaches to evaluation are theoretically inappropriate in whole-language classrooms. Argues that responsive evaluation can be applied at the classroom level and that the data generated will tell more about children's developing control of language than standardized tests do. (RJC)

Argues for the growing theme of collaboration between nursing practice and education. Describes the relationship between the University of Texas Health Science Center School of Nursing and its community. (JOW)

The Key School in Indianapolis, Indiana, is a magnet school with a heterogeneous student body in a large, urban district. The school has drawn national attention for its collaborative, interdisciplinary curriculum development and alternative assessment methods. The instructional program calls for central curricular themes to be continuously shaped…

Describes team-building activities for mental health counselors who function as consultants to staffs, groups, or other intact work systems. Provides rationale for application of strategic systems and sociodrama techniques to an adventure activity that allows a group to metaphorically enact its common issue. Provides example of a consultation…

Discusses current thinking on the theory-practice relationship within both literary and curriculum theory by presenting ideas and positions of representative figures from each discipline. Suggests an approach that seeks to capitalize on the important and common aspects of both. (KEH)

Responding to Arthur Blunmberg's critique of Bolin's article, the author supports grounding supervision in practice and using qualitative research methods. However, the status of teaching is devaluation of children in our society. Such values perpetuate the low status of teacher supervision. (MLH)

According to a recent survey, many veteran education faculty are unhappy about their work in its institutional context. Teacher educators possess low status within a reward system increasingly centered on research and publication. The challenge is to develop good teacher preparation programs while ignoring the glories of the research institution.…

Describes five whole language professional resources that present many insights into whole language theory along with specific ways to implement it in the classroom. (MG)

Discusses characteristics of poststructuralism, and describes some applications of poststructural theory in the English classroom. Argues that a poststructuralist pedagogy need not neglect traditional terminology and traditional close reading of texts. (RS)

Issues that need to be resolved related to the inclusion of critical care nursing (CCN) in the baccalaureate curriculum are (1) the nature of specialist versus generalist preparation; (2) the goals for inclusion of CCN; and (3) the relationship between education and practice and the responsibilities of each in educating competent practitioners.…

High quality teaching is hard to obtain without giving teachers greater independence. Meaningful school reform will be stalled until teachers emerge from their marginal positions in the research community and become full partners in the conception and conduct of educational inquiry. Includes 12 references. (MLH)

Carrying out a useful research agenda requires faculty's willingness to relinquish class time for collecting data, to convene student teachers, to audiotape supervisory conferences, to require student teachers to videotape and evaluate their teaching, and to recruit experienced teachers for experiments. Unfortunately many faculty disdain…

Explains a California school district's successful development of school effectiveness policies to promote student achievement for all children. Milpitas Unified School District discovered that change must be clearly defined, clearly focused, and based on solid research. (MLH)