"The Adventurous School" tells the uplifting stories of three primary schools who took charge of renewing their vision, their place in the community and their curriculum to become environments where children, teachers, parents and partners thrived. The book takes the reader through each school's five year journey and gives real-life…

The stories of four practitioners are presented regarding their involvement with the Aspen conference and their reflections on the essays in this forum. Their stories suggest that the ability for academics and practitioners to co-create engaged scholarship depends on articulating common values and interests, creating a shared language that allows…

Describes the efforts of a Baltimore (Maryland) County Public Schools task force to initiate values education in the schools through a representative grassroots effort that involved many community groups. Twenty-four core values were identified that could be infused throughout the curriculum. Each school within the district formed an advisory…

Three intermountain communities in Colorado and Utah were studied to determine the impact of rapid development on residents of rural communities, especially on their views of the world and their personal well-being, and to assess the degree to which energy boomtowns experience the social disruption suggested in the classical boomtown studies. Two…

Many of the arguments in the Victoria Department of Education, Australia, against the involvement of school councils in the selection of principals are based on careerism, opportunism, and protectionism. To move away from the lock-step adherence to the values that lead to accession by seniority requires the application of democratic methods.…

How fiction is used in a college-level political science seminar to teach about democratic decision making and U.S. politics is described. The fiction used is clustered around the following topics: community-level decisions, limits to consensus, group values and politics, acquiring elected offices and trying to keep them, and public bureaucracies.…

Noting that quality children's literature is one of the most valuable resources teachers have at their disposal, this fastback presents a practical approach to values education incorporating literature that can be used in the absence of, or in addition to, a formal program. The fastback discusses the rationale for values education, the literature…

Outlines the findings from the NASSP Task Force on Effective School Climate including clear definitions of school climate and a model illustrating the inputs and outputs of the school environment. Includes a table for the model. (MD)

Applies to public education the principles that begin to explain why some organizations become great and others do not. States that an organization is able to achieve greatness only by pushing in an intelligent and consistent direction for years and even decades. (MLF)

In developing evaluative methods within the field of mental handicap services, evaluators should be more explicit about values they adopt and about lifestyles that services should be enabling people to achieve. An approach is described for evaluating the "All-Wales Strategy for the Development of Services for Mentally Handicapped…

Argues for a viable discourse community of the social studies profession. Suggests that such a professional conversation is characterized by an engaging and authentic topic and skilled conversationalists of equal status. Recommends that the first questions to be addressed deal with the nature of value, reality, and knowledge. (DK)

In spring 1985, a survey of Native American students attending Mesa Community College (MCC) was conducted to determine whether Native American students were significantly different from the general MCC population; the age, special interests, majors, degree objectives, socioeconomic status, and career plans of these students; tribal representation…

This volume in NCSET's Essential Tools series summarizes current research about transition issues and Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CLD) youth with disabilities. It offers information on how transition personnel can effectively support these youth by building on their strengths and enhancing natural supports available within their…

This book is based on the premise that schools are communities and that schools must be created as moral communities if moral education is to succeed in the schools. Sections of the book explore the key elements required to turn schools into moral communities. Chapters include: (1) "Administrative Issues"; (2) "How Children Develop Morals"; (3)…

Self-contained lessons for use in secondary level social studies, English, and language arts courses will help students understand that they are a part of a global community. Although written for use in Ohio schools, the lessons can easily be adapted for use in other states. Unit 1 shows students how the decisions of people in other countries can…