Instructional coaching guru Jim Knight suggests that how we think about coaching can enhance or interfere with our success as a coach. He suggests that coaches take a partnership approach to collaboration and adopt seven principles that define how coaches interact with collaborating teachers: equality, choice, voice, reflection, dialogue, praxis,…

When Deborah Peterson reluctantly accepted the principalship of Roosevelt High School in Portland, Oregon, a high-poverty school no other qualified applicants would touch that her supervisor assigned to her, books for new principals were no help. The books suggested actions like crafting a school vision and developing professional learning…

As a classroom teacher, Kari Smith realized that traditional objective tests don't always assess what students actually know. But tests are so deeply embedded in the education system that it would be difficult to do away with them entirely. Smith decided to make tests into learning tools. In this article, Smith describes three strategies for…

The Reggio Emilia approach to education reveals new ways for promoting children's academic learning; offers documentation as a tool for studying, sharing, and planning children's education experiences; and provokes a new way to think about the role of the teacher. (Contains 17 references.) (MLF)

Talbot Hill Elementary School in Renton, Washington, uses the MicroSociety model to make learning relevant and engaging for its diverse student population. Three afternoons each week, every student participates in a for-profit business, a governmental agency, or a nonprofit organization. Teachers prepare students to participate in the school's…

The arts survive at the margins of education primarily as curriculum enrichments. However, evidence is emerging that shows that arts education can have powerful effects on student achievement, with the greatest gains for students in the lowest socioeconomic status quartile, those most at risk of academic failure. Arts integration is an…