It seems apparent that the traditional two-step organization of eight elementary and four high school grades is the weakest. The most promising organizational plan is the three-step 4-4-4 or 5-3-4 plan, which promises greater attention to individualized instruction. (AN)

Discusses the problem of content-area textbooks that are not matched with students reading levels. Describes how exemplary content-area teachers moderate the textbook mismatch problem and improve student learning by creating a multi-source, multileveled curriculum, providing student choice, and offering individualized instruction. (Contains 15…

A major problem facing schools is lack of curricular differentiation and academic challenge for the most academically able students. Also, contemporary textbooks have been "dumbed down." Curriculum compacting is a flexible, research-based technique enabling high-ability students to skip work they already know and substitute more…

Two Chicago high school teachers believe that the course they teach--a cooperative, interdisciplinary study of American culture focusing on history and literature--is an effective way to prepare students for citizenship in a pluralistic society. This article recounts their experience with student-negotiated curriculum in an eleventh-grade American…

Established in 1973, a progressive Charlotte, North Carolina, elementary school has been subjected to trends and pressures (particularly the back-to-basics and direct- instruction movements) that threatened its integrity and survival. Irwin Avenue must cover citywide academic objectives, but organizes its curriculum around themes and active,…