This practical resource draws on the best of neuroscience to inform decisionmaking about digital learning. We live in unprecedented times that have pushed schools to make many decisions that have been postponed for years. For the first time since the inception of public education, teachers have been invited to redesign the learning landscape by…

When beginning music teachers enter a new classroom for the first time, they start a journey toward understanding a new context and community. Place consciousness develops as they become embedded in their community and begin to recognize how its culture and environment interact with their teaching practices. By mapping the objects, people, and…

Inclusion is clearly related to better outcomes for young children--but reports from the US Department of Education show the practice has grown by just 5% over the past 27 years. This is the how-to book preschool administrators, school district leaders, child care directors, and faculty need to step up the progress of early childhood inclusion…

The Council of Chief State School Officers' "Accommodations Manual: How to Select, Administer, and Evaluate the Use of Accommodations for Instruction and Assessment of Students with Disabilities" was first developed to establish guidelines for states to use for the selection, administration, and evaluation of accommodations for…

Students need to be competent in science because of its impact on everyday decision-making, the rapid pace of change and the increasing interdependent global economy (Lawton, 2007; U.S. Department of Education, 2000; Lederman, 1998). According to the National Research Council, "Teachers of science should develop communities of science learners…

The 2.5-day workshop described in this manual was designed to meet the growing concern that small projects administered by the Peace Corps were not truly community projects or priorities. To foster more community involvement in the design, implementation, and evaluation of projects, this workshop is geared to the training of Peace Corps volunteers…

This article proposes a pedagogical approach dedicated to help students develop personal ethical agency--the ability to make decisions that involve ethical dilemmas consistent with an individual's ethical standards and professional standards of practice. The approach presented involves a tripartite gathering of students, business executives, and…

To be actively involved in their own writing requires that students make decisions. In order to build a new approach for our Technical/Professional Writing classes, we assessed our individual teaching practices and past experiences, studied current scholarship on teaching writing, and conducted research on technical writing in our local community.…

An "orientation" checklist is proposed to aid the adult basic education (ABE) teacher in preparing for instruction. The list reflects a number of issues teachers should consider carefully before meeting with students. The issues concern (1) information about the learners and their characteristics and needs that can be taken into account in…

This paper discusses how educational program developers can design useful systems for gathering ongoing information about program outcomes to aid in the decision-making process. An introductory section offers basic definitions and a rationale for collecting outcomes information. Next, roadblocks to using information for decision making are…

School communities feel pressure to dramatically improve the educational experience of students and principals are confronted with the need to lead their staff and community in examining current practice and implementing changes that respond to these demands. Leading school change is one of the most complex tasks faced by a school leader. The…

A project was conducted to increase the retention of African American men in the Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council's literacy program. The project's primary objectives were as follows: develop a program in self-esteem, goal setting, and decision making and use it as a "draw" to bring new students into the literacy program; build…

This handbook is designed to help instructors and advisory committees interact effectively in the Partners in Program Excellence (PIPE) system. It describes a way to keep a local advisory committee involved throughout the life of the training program. The handbook takes the instructor and the advisory committee through the 10 activities into which…

Suggestions are made for establishing a policy for prohibiting smoking on school property. First, a working committee for policy formation should be established. This committee should consist of representatives from all populations affected: students, teachers, parents, staff, bus drivers, cooks, administrators, and union and community…

In planning any new reading program, teachers should know exactly what they want to accomplish. This requires careful identification of overall goals and objectives. During this first step in planning, all of the teachers who will be affected by the program should submit lists of the reading skills that they believe are pertinent at their grade…