At Harlem Academy in New York City, a schoolwide creed and baseline habits (such as "come prepared for the start of class with materials" and "follow teacher directions all the way, right away") provide a pathway for consistent behavior expectations throughout the school, allowing students to practice the same positive…

Meng Li Lusardi, a Chinese teacher at an independent school in New York, recently set out to provide her students with more personalized learning and assessment. In this article, Lusardi documents how she revamped a project with personalization in mind, which resulted in content-rich exploration and greater student engagement. The author's…

Educators know that students learn better when their teacher considers carefully how young people learn best. Yet, when administrators plan professional development for teachers, the author claims, they often forget to consider how teachers learn best. As principal of a private K-8 school, Scott arranges professional learning for her teachers in a…

Although the Common Core state standards' goal of ensuring that every student leaves high school prepared to meet the demands of college and career is laudable, it's daunting for teachers who serve English language learners. The authors, educators at a private bilingual school in Mexico, describe how they used short excerpts of longer works giving…

Summer school makes an unlikely candidate for a bright spot in education reform during these difficult economic times. It occupies a long-held negative place in U.S. culture, prompting dread in the hearts of many former and current students. Summer school conjures up images of sitting in hot classrooms and receiving remedial instruction while…

Although most people in the United States believe, at least theoretically, in educational equality, fewer and fewer appear to care about the resource gaps between affluent and poor schools, says Weissbourd. He illustrates these gaps with vivid descriptions of what he calls an "opulence arms race" among affluent independent schools, but…

The author presents a strong case against public funding of private schools while reviewing the inequities brought about by the privatization of social services. (MD)

Reviewing public education versus private education concerns, the author outlines the dangers of privatization and presents a strong argument for strengthening public education. (MD)

A study of sixty new Florida independent schools and parental reasons for enrolling their children. Most parents wanted their child to have more individual attention and a better school environment. Some of the newer schools exist, however, to escap integrated ones. (AF)

Counters Jonathan Kozol's concerns about educational vouchers, insisting that $2,500 could buy a quality private school education in Montgomery, Alabama. Critiques other voucher articles in the November 1992 "Educational Leadership" issue by challenging Alex Molnar's common school system concept and Arnold Fege's substitution of societal…

Discusses the current status of Summerhill school since the death of its founder, A. S. Neill, and concludes that little has changed. (JG)

Describes a principal's positive experience with parent surveys to help gauge how parents view a St. Louis (Missouri) school's educational program. All questionnaires contain Likert-scale items (ranging from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree"). The surveys are excellent tools for opening lines of communication. (MLH)

The Global Youth Academy began as a low-cost, private school that taught global citizenship to its own students and foreign students recruited enroute. The school-on-wings formula is simple: build the curriculum into a tour, integrate academic and personal growth, and stress community service. The program succeeds academically while promoting…

Outlines the program of Bethany Baptist Academy, a fundamentalist religious K-12 school in the Midwest. The school socializes the students to think and behave according to the dictates of its religious doctrine. (MD)