This book presents 30 brief practical teaching ideas for writing and English instruction in secondary classrooms. The first chapter presents various strategies for helping students learn to write well: students compile their own examples of effective writing; they turn interviews into gift books; they record their own activities for a whole day to…

This paper suggests teaching strategies for grades 4 through 12 that examine the commercial media and their messages as agenda setters, i.e., as mechanisms for selecting social issues, establishing their importance, and defining socially acceptable attitudes and responses to those issues. The strategies also explore how the media can create biased…

A symposium on educational evaluation was held to celebrate the career of Robert E. Stake. Contributions, which relate to many aspects of educational evaluation, include: (1) "The Issue of Advocacy in Evaluation" (Ernest House and Kenneth Howe); (2) "The Meaning of Bias" (Michael Scriven); (3) Commentary on Ernie House and…

The role of the supervisor in improving the reading curriculum is more demanding than formerly, even as the teaching profession needs to make do with what there is in the public schools, be it class size, equipment, materials of instruction, or a hostile learning environment. The supervisor needs to look at two dimensions: personal lives of…

This book presents a comprehensive case study of the professional life of a fictional school principal. Based entirely on case-study methodology, all the episodes discussed in the book depict actual events in everyday education leadership practice and represent a real-life education leadership experience through episodic progression. The case…

This guidebook provides information, activities, and overheads to help educators better understand approaches and strategies toward making sexuality education more accessible to persons with developmental disabilities. Chapter 1, "How Do I Start? Where Do I Start?," discusses providing accurate, age appropriate, and useful sexuality education.…

Many states use a statewide assessment strategy to evaluate districts on common measures. Because districts in Nebraska are not measured on common instruments, comparisons of district performance are difficult. The accountability model described in this paper contains three components related to school district performance on academic content…

As both individuals and societies, we are making decisions today that will have profound consequences for future generations. From preserving Earth's plants and animals to altering our use of fossil fuels, none of these decisions can be made wisely without a thorough understanding of life's history on our planet through biological evolution.…

Science is one area within Aboriginal Education which appears to receive comparatively little attention. The author experienced this in practice when he was lecturing in science education to trainee teachers on the topic of teaching science to Aboriginal students in secondary schools. As a newcomer to the Northern Territory the author does not…

Two main instructional approaches have been used to educate English learners in California--English language development (ELD) together with academic instruction in the primary language (bilingual education), and ELD with or without Specially Designed Academic Instruction in English (SDAIE). Since the passage of Proposition 227 in June 1998,…

Recent information on international assessments (e.g., the Third International Mathematics and Science Study) indicates that 12th-grade students in the United States are doing extremely poorly on such assessments compared with their peers in other countries. These poor results are usually attributed to cognitive factors such as students' …

Previous research on small-group collaboration identifies several behaviors that significantly predict student learning. These reports focus on student behavior to understand why, for example, large numbers of students are unsuccessful in obtaining explanations or applying help received, leaving unexplored the role that teachers play in …

Monitoring school performance increasingly uses sophisticated analytical techniques. This document investigates whether one such method, hierarchical growth modeling, yields consistent school performance results when different metrics are used as the outcome variable. It is examined as to whether statistical and substantive inferences are altered…

This document is intended for use in conjunction with "Policies and Procedures for Accommodations and Alternate Assessment to the MEA," and both the "MEA Principal/Test Coordinator's Manual" and the "MEA Test Administrator's Manual." The first section, Enrollment, covers the following subjects: (1) Participation of Enrolled Students; (2) Students…

To assist teachers in achieving "highly qualified" status, the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) has created a single document that will give teachers the information they need to interpret the requirements of HOUSSE; assess their credentials, course work, experience, and professional activities; complete the HOUSSE rubric to achieve…