Drawing on their own experiences, the authors suggest starting a program for gifted children by developing community support, choosing an appropriate type of program, assessing staff perceptions of the need for the program, identifying gifted students, developing a curriculum, involving the faculty, securing funding, and choosing the evaluation…

Working with teachers, parents, and the school board, the East Hampton (Connecticut) Public Schools developed a program that improved students' paragraph writing within one year. The program involved setting objectives on paragraph construction and use of supporting information, giving teachers inservice training, specifying students' problems,…

Schools need clear, consistent, and equitable disciplinary practices. A Louisiana parochial school developed an effective discipline policy by assembling faculty and staff into natural work teams, appointing team leaders, having each group list and classify troublesome disciplinary problems, studying the school mission statement, developing…

Outlines 10 steps for schools to take to develop an administrator internship program. (MD)

Foreign language study is finding a niche in the elementary school curriculum. Schools now offer Chinese, Russian, Arabic, Swedish, and Japanese, instead of teaching mostly German and the Romance languages. Studies agree that children pursuing foreign languages show more creativity, divergent thinking, and higher-order thinking skills and score…

Afterschool or latchkey programs provide professional care for youngsters while building confidence among students and parents. This article describes three program options: site-based, centralized, and outsider programs. Before proceeding, principals must discover parents' expectations, consider available facilities, obtain trained staff, and…

To improve test scores and instructional quality, school districts in New Brunswick (New Jersey) and Adams County (Colorado) implemented programs to increase student time on task. Administrators introducing time on task programs should involve teachers and principals in planning, answer six staff questions, and provide support for necessary…

Conflict-management programs help students of all ages find peaceable ways to handle disputes. Students most likely to become effective mediators are confident individuals who write clearly, care about others, listen well, and ask appropriate questions. Principles of conflict should be taught along with strategies for settling disputes. A sidebar…

Applied academics is the watchword in several West Virginia secondary schools. Instead of sitting in classrooms, junior high students are measuring floor tiles, estimating stadium seating capacity, or launching models to study acceleration; high school students are creating a complicated model-railroad layout and a computer-controlled system to…

Describes a half-day, weekly program designed for academically gifted children in a rural school system in Northern California. Success hinges on a reliable checklist to identify gifted children, an effective coordinator in each school, involvement of interested teachers, creative curriculum ideas, and a fair student selection and deselection…

Presents nine public relations programs developed for a Connecticut elementary school that were adapted from other schools and tailored to the school's specific needs. (MD)

Offers advice to principals on initiating a writing program, including tips on planning, teacher training, costs, and assessment. One cardinal rule: the administrator must also write. (Author/WD)

Avoid the one-shot approach to evaluating administrators by designing a continuous system that focuses on improved performance. The four parts of this school district's evaluation system--philosophy, procedures, instruments, and training--are described, and a sidebar lists the specific job duties used in evaluating administrative performance. (DCS)

A number of school districts have set up employee assistance programs (EAP) that offer help for employees having personal or family problems that affect their job performance. Guidelines for establishing an EAP are offered. (MLF)

With fewer church-going youngsters and more dysfunctional families, today's schools have become more involved in character education. A student's death from leukemia propelled the Boston Public Schools into a formal values-education effort. The district offers a comprehensive literature-based program that teaches values such as courage, honesty,…