In the May 2001 "Educational Leadership," Stanley Pogrow wrote another article attacking the Success for All program and comprehensive reform. SFA has been highly evaluated in numerous studies and by 52 individual researchers. Pogrow is a competitor who believes his own program (Higher Order Thinking Skills) has been slighted. (Contains…

Reviews the research on the effectiveness of five thinking skills training programs: Instrumental Enrichment, Philosophy for Children, Structure-of-Intellect (SOI), Problem Solving and Comprehension: A Short Course in Analytical Reasoning, and Odyssey. Compares and contrasts the content of each program and describes the relative lack of adequate…

An evaluation of 14 independent experiments in early intervention, conducted in the late 1950s and early 1960s, revealed program characteristics related to positive outcome: the early age at intervention; the higher adult-child ratio; and more home visits, direct participation of parents, and services for families. (Author/MLF)

Professional literature extols the potential benefits of portfolios for teaching, learning, and assessment--particularly compared with traditional multiple-choice tests. Although initial findings favor portfolio assessments, the challenges lie in ensuring technical quality, equity, and feasibility for large-scale assessment purposes. Two major…

After-school program participation is associated with higher grades and test scores, especially for low-income students. Programs come in three types: school-age childcare, youth development, and educational after-school programs. Few programs meet students' needs, due to inadequate funding, poorly trained leadership, transient staff,…

School districts should be allowed to dispense with labeling children as disadvantaged and to use the Title I support they receive in schools that have a high proportion of children from poor families. (Author/MLF)

An independent study of Baltimore City's Tesseract schools analyzes why the privately managed program failed. Results showed no gains on Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills scores. Baltimore was paying about 11% more per student than in comparison schools. EAI has succeeded in establishing the supremacy of Wednesday afternoons for staff development…

Two rebuttals to William Cooley's criticisms of Title I programs in the January 1981 issue of "Educational Leadership" claim he incorrectly interpreted the data on the effectiveness of the programs. Cooley responds. (MLF)

Teachers implementing a local history project in Belmont, California, had help from a federally funded technology innovation challenge grant: the Challenge 2000 Multimedia Project. Sponsored by a Silicon Valley school-business partnership, the initiative illustrates how technology can transform classroom learning while supporting instructional…

Critics of the Virginia Standards of Learning claim the tests do not allow teachers and students to explore their own interests. Proponents say the tests might force schools to cut out time-wasting activities (like Friday movies) and concentrate on performance. Parents worry about their kids' progress. (MLH)

Assesses effectiveness of three preschool curriculum models by examining the lives of 68 23-year-olds randomly assigned to one such group as economically disadvantaged preschoolers. Young people experienced fewer emotional problems and felony arrests if they had attended a preschool program based on child-initiated learning activities geared to…

To make sense of the complex information taught in the upper elementary grades -- and to understand the language that increasingly appears in high-stakes tests--students must be proficient in academic English. English language learners are at a serious disadvantage. Two word problems in mathematics illustrate the difficulties that these students…