What would happen if schools offered all students the same challenges and opportunities that some schools now offer only their "best" students? The Southern Regional Education Board addressed that question in 1987, when it developed the High Schools That Work Model. Blending challenging college-preparatory content with modern vocational and…

The Mukilteo (Washington) School District developed an assessment plan to provide reliable feedback on primary students' reading performance, allow documentation of student progress over time, and enlighten parents. Collaborating with the University of Washington, the district decided to employ timed oral reading fluency measures to screen all K-3…

The Paideia School Model was inspired by philosopher Mortimer Adler's belief in a high-quality, single-track, liberal arts education to prepare students for work, citizenship, and lifelong learning. This article describes how Chattanooga (Tennessee) parents and educators worked to develop and implement a holistic, rigorous Paideia curriculum. (MLH)

The reading workshop is not based on ability groups, but provides a venue to focus on each student's strengths and needs. Components include a teacher-sharing time, focus lesson, state-of-the-class conference, self-selected reading and responding time, and student-sharing time. (MLH)

The "clearness committee," a Quaker practice, might provide an avenue for educators grappling with crises and seeking clarity about their worries and concerns over time. A Lewis and Clark College seminar held in April 1998 dealt with an administrator's fears about carrying on following a former student's suicide. Steps for freeing one's…

Profiles four successful charter schools. San Diego's O'Farrell Community School provides an enrichment curriculum for inner-city middle schoolers. The Minnesota New Country School, established by three teachers, stresses individual and group projects. Saint Paul's City Academy engages 60 racially diverse youngsters with real-life construction…

Dissatisfied with their present parent-teacher conference format, an Iowa middle school perused the literature on student-led conferences and established three program implementation phases: initial preparations, conferences, and evaluations. Students selected portfolio items, decided what to discuss with parents, and rehearsed the conference…

Poised to help legally homeless parents become their children's best teachers, instructors in a Nevada literacy program found that human relationships took precedence over academics. Instructors learned the importance of renaming the program (to avoid association with prior academic failure) and blending literacy activities with hot meals, family…

Although multiple intelligences, learning styles, and brain-based education have discrete theoretical constructs, research bases, and applications, they share similar outcomes in the practical classroom environment. There are several areas of overlap. Each theory is learning- and learner-centered, regards teachers and students as reflective…

The "Passages" program is a curriculum that integrates heart, spirit, and community with strong academics. The program inspires feelings of connectedness in teenagers by addressing their unspoken needs: the search for meaning and purpose, longing for silence and solitude, urge for transcendence, hunger for joy and delight, creative…

A 1987 model for a coordinated school health program included a healthy environment, comprehensive health education, physical education, health and nutrition services, counseling, staff health promotion, and family and community involvement. Effective programs in two low-resource areas--Providence, Rhode Island, and Animas, New Mexico--are…

University of Toronto's Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, in partnership with the North York and Metropolitan Toronto Separate School Districts, began a two-year pilot program in 1995 that incorporates a school-improvement project into beginning teacher preparation. A key aim is preparing preservice teachers to be improvement-minded…

Widespread dissatisfaction caused a Nevada district to reexamine and revamp its teacher-evaluation process. The new system, which assumes teacher participation in goal setting helps teachers become self-reflective practitioners capable of adjusting their practices, has four domains: planning and preparation, classroom environment, instruction, and…