This study reports on a 5-year project to improve urban, middle-level student achievement through the implementation of two initiatives. First, teachers at a participating New York City middle school engaged in weekly curriculum-planning workshops to reformulate classroom curricula into interdisciplinary, discovery-oriented activities. Second,…

Financial and organizational problems in developing professional development schools are described. Structures and processes that allow these schools to contribute to the simultaneous reconstruction of the public schools in which teachers work and university programs in which teachers prepare are identified. (TJH)

The Norwood-University of Southern California Professional Practice School (PPS) project began in 1990-1991. Norwood is an inner-city elementary school in Los Angeles with a student population that is 99 percent Hispanic. Initial efforts to achieve a major project goal--to promote professionalization of teachers--focused on building collegial…

The College of Education and Human Services at Western Illinois University has established a model to prepare teachers with technical expertise and new methodologies for using educational resources, in order to enable students to use audio, video, computer, telecommunications, distance learning, and interactive multimedia technologies as essential…