NGSS Early Implementers is a four-year initiative created to help eight California school districts and two charter management organizations, supported by WestEd's K-12 Alliance, implement the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). This evaluation report describes how site and district administrators are making critical contributions to the…

Fort Lewis College (Colorado) developed a 17 credit, multidisciplinary learning program for first-time freshmen. The Integrated Learning Program (ILP) meets several of the college's general education requirements, is issue-oriented, and is taught by a team of five faculty members. The goals of the program include getting students to learn how to…

Intended for administrators and policy makers as well as teachers, this digest explores issues surrounding methods of teaching thinking skills and who should teach them. Following an introduction that acknowledges the need for teaching such skills but a lack of consensus on how to meet this need, the digest discusses theories of isolating specific…

Asserts that the arts, including art, music, dance, and theater, often are ignored or shortchanged in the school curriculum. Discusses how language education has assumed a central place in the school curriculum and whether art education can use curriculum integration to achieve the same status. (CFR)

Describes a workshop that presented both implementation strategies and a working model for education programs seeking to infuse environmental education (EE) in the classroom. Reviews possible obstacles to cross-curricular EE in the school setting and includes a list of factors useful in selecting cross-curricular program themes. (MCO)

Presented are ideas for a six-year science curriculum for secondary school science education. Exposure to biology, chemistry, physics, and earth sciences for the purpose of preparing students to enter college is proposed. The integration of the science disciplines during all six years is emphasized. (CW)

Comments on remarks by A. Graham Down, president of the Council for Basic Education, about integrating arts education into the curriculum. Concludes that, when the arts are channeled into the mainstream and made part and parcel of everything, arts education becomes dangerously confused. (CFR)

Emphasizes the need to improve the quality and quantity of arts education programing in public schools. Suggests ways to improve preservice and inservice teacher programs in the collaborative arts. Existing programs stress that the arts are interrelated components with many possibilities for collaboration. Institutions with interdisciplinary arts…

Asserts that it is important to avoid bandwagon superficialities related to the interdisciplinary approach to arts education in the K-12 curriculum. Concludes that the overarching issue related to the National Standards implementation is how to keep content and process in a productive relationship. (CFR)

Maintains that the 1990s are witnessing a renewed interest in curriculum integration. Presents, defines, and discusses nine approaches to the cognitive and affective aspects to integrating the arts in the K-12 curriculum. Recommends the coequal style and asserts that it has the potential for intellectual stimulation. (CFR)

Asserts that societal trends make it essential that educators succeed in developing effective multicultural education. Maintains that a curriculum based on students' experiences and an interdisciplinary approach can help achieve the goals of multicultural education. (CFR)

Maintains that, in recent years, schools and school districts have begun to explore an integrated curriculum approach to arts education. Discusses three areas of concern related to the arts as disciplines and the arts presented through an interdisciplinary approach. Calls for explicit policy directives to provide guidance. (CFR)

Discusses two related dilemmas: (1) the tension between the Western view of historical progress and the realities of modern society; and (2) the tension between old and new approaches to teaching and learning about the arts. Argues that the end result of implementing the Goals 2000 program might diminish the teaching of the arts as discrete…

This final report describes a project at the University of Connecticut-Storrs, begun in 1993, to create a 5-year interdisciplinary, undergraduate, double-degree program, combining a bachelor of science in engineering with a bachelor of arts in German. The program, called Eurotech, is intended to provide students with practical, integrated foreign…

Asserts that the general educational curriculum tends to be fragmented and compartmentalized and that this situation would be improved by curriculum integration. Argues that an interdisciplinary arts approach would require new teacher attitudes and instructional strategies. (CFR)