This user's guide provides an overview of an approach to learning about different cultures that is based on an understanding of young adolescent development. It highlights three teaching methods that are considered of particular importance to the educational process: (1) the integration of materials in social studies and language arts classes; (2)…

This user's guide presents an interdisciplinary teaching approach for middle school instruction in the area of African-American history. It emphasizes the importance of cultural diversity and the need for tolerance to allow students to see racial harmony as a step to global peace. The guide is divided into four sections that encompass…

This report examines the use of community-based support to facilitate curriculum renewal efforts in small rural school districts. Interviews with educators from five school districts in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington describe three approaches to curriculum renewal: community-initiated approaches, state-directed reform efforts, and…

Five questions and answers are presented in this document. They are as follows: (1) Are family literacy and intergenerational literacy the same? The first term, it is explained, focuses on the parent and child, while the second term, used in the broader sense, involves other adults such as grandparents and neighbors, etc. (2) What are the goals of…

This report presents results from a National Coalition of Advocates for Students' (NCAS) study (Looking for America) of intergroup relations between immigrant and U.S. born students in public schools and the organization's collaboration with selected schools to improve those relationships. The report reveals school practices designed to improve…

Under the Idaho state system for curriculum development in vocational education, Technical Committees made up solely of industry personnel are responsible for drawing up task lists for each program. Accordingly, a task list for dental assistants was drawn up and used as a basis for revising the curriculum guide for fundamentals of dental assisting…

Murray State University (Kentucky) has approached the internationalization of the business curriculum by creating a bachelor of arts degree program requiring 2 years of foreign language study. To assess the program's overall success, three student surveys were undertaken. The first polled entering freshman business students in fall 1990 about…

The Montana school accreditation requirements require that school districts begin a curriculum development process in 1991. A plan for student assessment is required to follow curriculum development in each program area. The guidelines in this document should facilitate the cooperative efforts of teachers, curriculum departments, administrators,…

This report by the UNESCO Institute for Education compares approaches to providing nonformal education to out-of-school children in Bangladesh, Burundi, Colombia, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The report analyzes some of the educational and demographic characteristics of the six countries, and the countries' policies concerning universal primary…

The Randolph, New Jersey Intermediate School updated its industrial arts program to reflect the challenges and work force of the Twentieth Century in which students apply a design/problem-solving process to solve real-world problems. In the laboratory portion of the program, students circulate between workstations to define problems, complete…

The challenge of building assessment into the curriculum has led the author to closely examine the expected outcomes of her teaching. Her experiences with students participating in projects that involved helping needy people in the community demonstrate the difficulty and advantages of implementing authentic assessment. The middle school students…

The curriculum extension program (CEP) of the Shell Science Centre provided group tutoring to small groups of secondary school pupils using qualified teachers. This evaluation report presents articles discussing various aspects of the program and its effectiveness. The first article by A. Ziervogel provides a review of the program. The following…

A review of North Carolina public preschool, elementary school, and secondary school education was done with the aim of increasing school districts' effectiveness in improving outcomes for all students, particularly improving the low achievement and postsecondary school attendance rates of African American males. Focus was on determining the…

Despite evidence of ineffectiveness, the American educational system remains tied to the child-centered, Piagetian approach to educating children. Based on the romantic notions of Rousseau, this approach maintains that children should not be viewed as receptacles of information that is dispensed by teachers but as active discoverers in a learning…

The Kansas State Board of Education's Quality Performance Accreditation system is described. Unlike past accreditation methods, which focused on the facilities or institutional characteristics, Quality Performance Accreditation accredits schools based on student performance. Through the accreditation process, the state will establish the same high…