In her new book, popular author Ann Lewin-Benham draws on her intimate knowledge and experience with the Reggio Approach to present 12 "best practices" inspired not only by Reggio, but also by play-based and Montessori approaches to early childhood education. These practices are demonstrated, one per chapter, with scenarios from classrooms,…

Corbin High School is located in a small, rural community of approximately 8,000 residents in southeastern Kentucky, midway between Lexington and Knoxville, Tennessee. The mission of Corbin High School is to provide opportunities that will help each student prepare for a successful transition to college, the workplace and life. This report…

Efforts to introduce school choice have produced pressures on public schools to improve their performance. As a result, many public schools have embraced the total quality management principle of continuous improvement. In this article we explain that while this may be well intentioned, it may have perverse unintended consequences. A likely…

Describes a reading camp-in program for third and fourth graders. Highlights include parent and teacher involvement, guest speakers, group activities, reading stations with teachers reading aloud, sleeping stations, and a sample schedule. (LRW)

Adult participation at the Early Childhood Research Center (ECRC) of the State University of New York at Buffalo is described in this paper. Five different programs serving families with infants, toddlers, and children 3 and 4 years old are briefly described to illustrate the complexity of program coordination at ECRC. The roles of staff teaching,…

Educators' main concern in 1956 is with teaching in small communities rather than exclusively with teaching in one-teacher schools. The modern rural school is likely to be one which serves an entire community, usually including a hamlet, village, or small-town center and the surrounding open country area. Yet, the school tends to be small (about…

Explores commonalities and differences between the Reggio Emilia approach and the developmentally appropriate approach. Points to differences in eight areas: (1) scheduling; (2) grouping children for activities; (3) planning; (4) teacher attitudes; (5) products of work and play; (7) parent conferences; and (8) continuity. (BGC)

Recent studies of turnarounds of low-performing schools have focused on the factors that made their successes possible. The author of this article realizes that it would also be valuable to look at what made the schools decline in the first place and the factors that might hinder their transformation. He focuses on some of the aspects of the…

In 1972-73 Grant Elementary School began the first year-round school in Utah. The program involves changes for teachers and students, and increases both in the number of school days and teachers' salaries. Each teacher has one-fourth more students than the average classroom in the community; each teacher has one-fourth more days (45) in which to…

Because of the high number of at-risk students at Carver Middle School (Meridian, Mississippi), the principal developed several programs to bring student achievement to the level commensurate with other students around the nation. The Early Bird Program is a Chapter One program of individualized work in math, reading, and language arts classes to…

This book is a hands-on resource that offers ideas, projects, and tips for elementary educators, including lesson plans, calendars and schedules, classroom discussion ideas, uses for new technology, and strategies for working parents. Each of the book's 12 chapters begins with a chapter overview, then offers a collection of articles by teachers…

The passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) in 1990 and the subsequent reauthorization in 1997 mandate school districts to provide transition services for students with disabilities in order to improve post-school outcomes for these youth. To help meet the requirements for transition, many school districts have developed…