Members of Teaching K-8's staff describe their visit to Brigantine Elementary School in Brigantine, NJ, where they were introduced to so many outstanding educators and enthusiastic volunteers that they wondered whether this was the "perfect school." Acknowledging that the school has some flaws, the Teaching K-8 staff note that Brigantine…

A spirit of collegiality and productivity flourishes at a Glendale, Arizona, middle school. Staff focus on integrating academic, exploratory, and thematic learning to develop students' cooperative learning and thinking skills. Curriculum connections happen by raising awareness about integrated/interdisciplinary curricula, visiting other schools,…

The research described in this paper was conducted over a 4-year period at Orangecrest Elementary School, a new school in a Southern California urban district, which adopted Integrated Thematic Instruction (ITI) at its inception. ITI, developed by Susan Kovalik, is a tightly structured program based on the idea of year-long themes which are broken…