Despite students' interest in informational text, it has played second fiddle in literacy instruction for years. Now, though, nonfiction is getting its turn in the spotlight. The Common Core State Standards require that students become thoughtful consumers of complex, informative texts--taking them beyond the realm of dry textbooks and…

Changing a teaching method is a big step - like changing a life style. Through the process of investigating this change, this article focuses on questions that are particularly pertinent. (Author/RK)

Suggestions are offered for overall restructuring of the mathematics curriculum to increase instructional intensity and eliminate repetition. Individual teachers' are urged to reshape their teaching materials and methods to renew students' interest in mathematics. (CB)

One teacher through five years of schooling? That's how it's done in Italy. Author considered the Italian elementary school program in view of whether such a system would work in American schools. (Editor/RK)

Noted educators make predictions on the ways teachers, teaching, and curriculum will change in the elementary schools of the 1980s. (SJL)

Introduces a special report on elementary science curriculum reform; articles include a primer on science reform, a look at the new wave of science teaching materials, model lessons for putting theory into practice, and a profile of one pioneering teacher who successfully changed the way science is taught in her school. (SM)

Guidelines help elementary educators understand what they will be teaching in science programs, how they will assess student learning, and how they will be trained. Science programs should develop scientific literacy via hands-on, collaborative, inquiry-oriented lessons centered on processes used by real scientists in their everyday work. (SM)

A middle school reform initiative, sponsored by the Program for Disadvantaged Youth of the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation 4 years ago, has taken hold in 12 urban middle schools nationwide. The article discusses that reform, noting the lessons about change to accommodate student diversity that urban middle schools can teach. (SM)