Exemplary middle schools have a variety of programs that support students' needs and help them adjust socially and emotionally; advisory programs can be one structure to effectively provide some of this support. This article shares the story of how a group of middle level teachers and teacher leaders within a culturally diverse school reclaimed…

The Community Outreach Centre (COC) is part of the Community Development portfolio in the Division of Student Affairs at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. It opened in fall 2007 as a resource and support centre for students who live off campus. The overarching goal of the centre is to cultivate community among off-campus students…

One of the successes of the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) has been to recognize the importance of advice and guidance to adults on courses as well as those wanting to access provision. Information, advice and guidance (IAG) matters: it helps people to overcome barriers to learning. It enables adults to identify what learning is right for them.…

In 1989, the delegate assembly of the Council for Exceptional Children began the process of developing standards of knowledge and skills for all beginning teachers of special education, including teachers of children who are deaf or hard of hearing. Now in its third major revision, these standards provide guidance to states' departments of…

Communities of practice (COPs) are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better through interacting with one another (Wenger 1998). Communities of practice have enormous potential to support and sustain quality care and education within a community and, in fact, are doing so. Businesses and…

Describes how counselors in the St. Joseph, Missouri, school district remodeled the guidance program to make it more comprehensive and developmental. Steps in making the changes are outlined including program assessment, selecting a model, and making the transition. (JAC)

Presents a rationale for including life planning in career guidance programs, describing how each of the following is served by life planning: counseling, assessment, credential portfolios, career and labor market information, employability skills, and work experience. Outlines elements of a comprehensive career and life planning program. (SK)

The school visit is an effective tool for stimulating the continued professional growth of middle level educators. In the past, however, a major problem with school visits was that they were conducted with positive expectations, but very little preplanning activities, little or no on-site structure, little or no debriefing for either the visiting…

Relatively little specific information is available about basic administrative concerns in organizing a group counseling program. This article presents basic methodological issues and provides step-by-step guidelines for initiating a group counseling program, including rationale, pregroup activities, and selection and orientation of group members.…

Surveyed guidance program directors (n=333) in national sample of public high schools about priorities and activities of their programs. Describes salient features of high school guidance programs as reported by these directors. Organizes results by categories of staffing and staff development, program development, program goals and priorities,…

Describes national models for career guidance and counseling. Explains how Maine and New Hampshire have aligned programs with state standards, emphasizing curriculum integration, evaluation of guidance programs, and accountability. (SK)

In this article, the authors describe how they use a strategic planning tool known as SWOT as a framework for case analysis, using it to analyze the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of a public works project intended to enhance regional economic development in Tempe, Arizona. Students consider the project in light of a variety of…

A laboratory project permits for the discussion of the reaction mechanism of the Suzuki-Miyaura coupling reaction. The practical part of the project makes the students familiar with working under inert atmosphere but if the appropriate equipment for working under inert atmosphere is not available in a laboratory, novel catalysts that do not…

As public expectations increase for individualizing the educational process, as some options open for education beyond high school, as the job markets shift with the ebb and flow of social and technological change, the challenge and the responsibilities resting upon the country's school counselors become steadily more demanding. (Author)

Defines a process that will enable counselors to design their own guidance activities relevant to the special needs of various student populations. Six steps are suggested: experiencing, publishing, processing, generalizing, developing, and applying. (ABB)