Pleasant View School for the Arts is a magnet school in northeast Ohio that draws from each level of the social strata and offers options for traditional grouping and tracking strategies in unique and effective ways. The school houses two basic programs: (1) the arts; and (2) gifted education, called the Kaleidoscope program. The arts program…

By playing with toys, children sometimes wonder how and why toys do what they do. At the moment of curiosity, interest can be captured and thinking can be influenced. This is a good time to focus on natural phenomena, provoke imagination, and promote scientific thinking. This book presents 53 classroom-tested activities to teach science with toys.…

This paper describes magnet school programs offering a special or enhanced curricula to attract an ethnically diverse population at all grade levels in the Houston (Texas) Independent School District (HISD). Researchers collected data through interviews, site visits, brochures, campus programs summaries, and an analysis of the Student Master File.…

The second year of an individualized multimedia bilingual magnet school project for non-English speaking background students in Philadelphia was evaluated. Approximately 275 students participated in programs at two sites. Bilingual multimedia learning centers containing materials for individual and small-group instruction and computer terminals…

The third year of an individualized multimedia bilingual magnet school project for limited English proficient students in Philadelphia was evaluated. Bilingual multimedia learning centers were operated at each of the two sites. At the elementary site, pupils from Korean, Spanish, and Portuguese backgrounds received bilingual instruction and were…

Do social policy intellectuals and their research help to strengthen quality education? Was the 1954 decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in Brown v. Topeka Board of Education, which relied heavily on social science research, flawed in its reasoning on school desegregation, equal educational opportunity, and quality education for African Americans?…

On April 5, 1989, the Bush Administration submitted to the Congress a legislative proposal entitled the "Educational Excellence Act of 1989." This report provides a description of the President's proposed education legislation and modifications to the proposal by the Congress, plus a brief analysis of each of the provisions. The seven…

The Columbus (Ohio) 1988 Magnet Schools Continuation Project needs to encourage greater parent involvement by encouraging parent-teacher organizations and informing parents of their children's accomplishments. Major objectives were to enhance the core instructional program, to provide parents with an active partnership experience in their…

This document comprises a report on transiency and stability for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) for 1987-88. Transiency refers to the number of students who enter and leave during the school year expressed as a percentage rate. Stability refers to the student population that has remained in the school all year expressed as a…

This final report in the MicroSIFT series reviews 10 software packages that deal mainly with the areas of electricity, magnetism, and heat energy. Software titles appearing in this report were selected because they were judged to be exemplary according to various criteria in the MicroSIFT Evaluator's Guide, with some additions to address science…

This report assesses the relative effectiveness of primarily voluntary and primarily mandatory desegregation plans in a sub-sample of 20 school districts, 9 of which are magnet-voluntary plans and 11 of which are magnet-mandatory plans. The major conclusions of this report are the following: (1) voluntary desegregation plans work; (2) dismantling…

First year planning and implementation of the Portland (Oregon) Partial Immersion Program in Spanish--an elementary magnet program providing a total language experience in a multi-cultural setting--were assessed. The program uses both Spanish and English to instruct students; half of the instructional day is conducted in each language. The…

This study found major differences among types of Chicago (Illinois) elementary schools in the amount and time that sixth grade students spent on homework, and that differences were related to the income level and prior student achievement in those schools. Ten magnet schools, 10 integrated schools and 10 primarily minority schools were chosen for…

Three major components of programs offered to public school students and teachers by the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia are described. One of the organization's major objectives is to prepare students for responsible roles as citizens and community leaders. The first component features a certified social studies teacher as liaison with the…

The Houston Independent School District operated 78 magnet schools during 1983-84. Located on 70 campuses, the programs represented all grade levels and ranged from fine arts programs to extended instructional day programs and programs for the academically able student. During 1983-84, the magnet school plan accomplished its stated objectives (the…