Many educational models emphasize that best instructional practices are effective when working collaboratively with stakeholders. Professional learning communities focus on learning, collaborative endeavors, and shared accountability. The purpose of this article is to introduce an effectual framework for developing school counselor instructional…

Leadership is recently touted as a necessary skill for school counselors and as a means of aligning their work more intentionally with school improvement goals. By using leadership practices, school counselors can implement a program that addresses the academic, career, and personal-social needs of "all" students. This article outlines a…

Administrators can help teachers follow six steps to gain the skills and confidence to use computers in the classroom: (1) familiarization with microcomputers, (2) understanding classroom computer applications, (3) acquiring parent and community support, (4) finding appropriate software, (5) introducing computers to students, and (6) evaluating…

A curriculum implementation monitoring system should be relatively inexpensive, unburdensome for faculty, and improvement oriented; produce information to guide staff development; and refrain from covertly evaluating teachers. A self-assessment checklist should report teachers' perceptions about degree of implementation, difficulty level, and…

Outlines initiatives that principals, superintendents, and boards of education should take to implement and support a Discipline-Based Art Education program. Discusses values and benefits of DBAE, inevitable obstacles to change, and ways to generate support. In these initiatives and activities, the principal is the prime mover. (MLH)

Although computer-assisted instruction is usually not cost-effective or educationally effective enough to be worthwhile in secondary schools, courses that actually teach computing and programing, although also expensive, pay off in increased job opportunities for graduates. The author explains how to plan them. (Author/JM)

To improve student's reading scores on the Test of Achievement and Proficiency, a rural Georgia high school initiated an improvement program based on Deming's continuous-improvement model in fall 1995. This model allows those closest to the problem to resolve it. By working continuously to improve students' testing environment, test-taking…

The national education goals developed during the historic 1989 Education Summit became the springboard for several federal initiatives, including the National Science Education Standards. The Standards define levels of understanding and abilities that all students should develop and recognize that many groups, including principals, share…

Character education's goal is to help young people know, care about, and act on core ethical values such as fairness, honesty, kindness, respect for others, and responsibility. In this interview, a high school principal in Memphis, Tennessee, explains how staff implemented a separate character-education course. (MLH)

Middle-level teachers can avoid passive seatwork and encourage students to think using a "guided thinking" approach, designed to help adolescents develop more sophisticated thinking and reasoning skills. Essential elements of guided thinking are described, along with an implementation strategy and the principal's role in fostering…

Problem-based learning is designed to maximize active student participation in the learning process, foster student problem-solving and self-education skills, enhance student self-assessment, increase student communication skills, and improve student abilities to access and use information resources. A Texas high school's innovative problem-based…

This planning and development guide suggests that careful, comprehensive, long range planning combined with gradual program implementation and effective administrative leadership can create responsive middle school programs. Sample sequential objective charts and activity lists are included. (DCS)