In an effort to improve high school graduation and college enrollment rates among students who are Black, Latino, or experiencing poverty, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation established the Networks for School Improvement (NSI) initiative and awarded five-year grants to intermediary organizations to develop networks of school teams that work…

Using the tools of autoethnography, this paper revisits our efforts as program leaders to collaborate with PK-12 partners in the redesign of our university-based teacher education programs. The PK-12 Advisory Group met quarterly to guide and advise our faculty redesign team. Through dialogue, they expanded our understanding of what new teachers…

From global hunger to the world's water crisis, middle school students at New Jersey's West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District spend the last few days of the school year problem solving about the planet's most dire issues. With the Global Challenge, the school district's administrators not only want to implement an interesting and dynamic…

Research increasingly highlights the significant benefits of multilingual instructional programs for English Learners. Yet, these programs remain relatively rare across California. Regional and local practitioners play an essential role in driving meaningful change by implementing strategies that enhance these programs--ultimately improving the…

Research shows that exposure to teachers of color has a positive impact on students of all races, and particularly on students of color. Despite these positive effects, only 4% of Pennsylvania's teachers are people of color. This percentage is not only one of the lowest in the nation, but it is also starkly disparate from Pennsylvania's own…

Every teacher can recall a range of experiences in professional development workshops. Some of these may have provided opportunities in which teachers felt engaged, empowered, and supported as learners, while others felt disconnected from practice. Although these authors recognize that workshops, particularly those with no follow-up support, are…

This paper reflects the experience of the authors working in the field of humanitarian education during the last two decades. Important changes have been witnessed since the Central American crises of the seventies, the refugee focus of the eighties and the new UN vision of the complex emergency crisis of the nineties resulting from the post Cold…

Describes the evolution of art therapy in Miami, Florida public schools over the past 20 years. Suggests the variety of tasks that must be accomplished to incorporate art therapy into the normal educational program, such as organizational and legislative collaboration, and how it will accommodate changing times. (RJM)

Discusses the components of peer-mediated instruction and interventions (PMII) (including peer modeling, peer initiation training, peer monitoring, peer networking, peer tutoring, and group-oriented contingencies) and instructional systems that incorporate PMII components with other elements of effective instruction. Explores implications for…

A survey of Iowa school districts found that the provision of special educational services and other aspects of gifted education was highly correlated with the availability of related inservice teacher education. (MSE)

Describes the Greenway Experience, an internationally acclaimed environmental education program that trains teenagers to teach children about their environment. The program is designed to provide teenagers with self-esteem building experiences as leaders in environmental education programs. (MCO)

This article provides a consistent framework through which educators may better identify and serve gifted and talented students by revisiting the dynamics of the Schoolwide Enrichment Model (SEM) in relation to student achievement. Delivery and structural and organizational components of SEM are discussed, along with research supporting the model.…

For a peer tutoring strategy, procedures for the selection of tutors and tutees, the matching of tutors and tutees, and the training of tutors are discussed. Practical information to assist classroom teachers contemplating the development of a peer tutoring program is provided. (NEC)

This paper describes the initial efforts of the New American Schools Development Corporation (NASDC), a private, nonprofit corporation created as part of the American 2000 initiative to fund the development of new designs for American schools. NASDC is currently funding nine teams to develop and demonstrate designs for high-performing schools.…

This report is intended to provide ideas to assist professionals and students in the exploration of tangible symbols for intervention purposes in working with visually capable individuals with disabilities. The first section provides an overview of tangible symbols and discusses the differences between tangible symbols and tangible objects, when…