While the 2011-2012 school year offered educators a sketch of the Common Core State Standards and how they would impact teaching and learning, this year that painting takes shape. Many states and districts are well on the way to implementing the standards--but the process is complex, especially for the school leaders who shoulder the task of…

After 10 years of operating early childhood programs, an education professor became an elementary school principal while designing a school to serve socially disadvantaged children. Herself disadvantaged by lack of certification and training, Caldwell discovered the fallacy of top-down reform efforts, the chasm between theory development and…

Provides testimony from five elementary school principals concerning the Skills for Growing Program piloted in U.S. and Canadian schools during 1987-1988. Principals stress the program's beneficial effects on student self-esteem, community involvement, curriculum enrichment, and staff morale. (MLH)

A study of 27 promising programs reveals 8 common reasons that educational innovations fail, including disenchanted practitioners; departure of innovation supporters; lack of personnel training; disappearing funding; inadequate supervision; and lack of accountability, administrative support, and termination consequences. Innovations succeed by…