School leaders struggle in their efforts to implement standards-based grading reforms in large part because they fail to address the inconsistency in grading practices among individual teachers. This article describes three crucial steps necessary to gain greater consistency in teachers' grading practices: (1) Reaching consensus on a purpose…

Student success in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) is a major concern in higher education. While overall 6-year graduation rates are around 60% nationally (National Center for Education Statistics, 2016), only about 40% of students who enter college intending to major in a STEM field complete a STEM degree within 6 years. Studies…

This article describes two cohort programs that were used to support students from groups underrepresented in STEM fields at Carleton College. These programs were designed to support three aspects of student development: students' drive to succeed in STEM fields; students' sense of belonging in their student cohorts, in the college, in the STEM…

Working at an alternative school requires the ability to balance a plethora of complicated issues. The primary focus is how to give high-risk students, who have spent years developing a suspicion for education and educators, a chance to be successful in life. The second focus, and just as important, is creating a group of educators who have the…

This report describes the Lessons to Enhance Achievement and Develop Student Leaders (LEADS) program, designed to facilitate the leadership training of middle school students through the creation of a leadership program by teachers and administrators. Section I contains a brief introduction for teachers, and Section II outlines team building…

Active between 1993 and 1996, the Promoting Academic Student Success (PASS) Program was aimed at reducing the high percentage of failure experienced by academic probation students at Corning Community College (New York). These students typically came from non supportive environments, possessed academic deficiencies, and suffered from feelings of…

The Focus program deals with those students who perform well below their capacity socially and/or academically. It has as its main goal to decrease the incidence of alienation among these youth, the staff, and the community. Sub-goals include the reduction of alienation and improvement of self-concept, an increased access to desirable social…

The Center for Comprehensive School Reform and Improvement invited Ann Chafin to share her thoughts and ideas about sustaining school reform. Chafin, chief of Program Improvement and Family Support Branch of the Maryland State Department of Education, was a speaker at the annual Institute for CSR State Coordinators held May 9-10 in Washington,…