This model is a career-oriented approach designed to enhance the employability and career options of out-of-school adults. (Author)

Deploring standardized testing deficiencies, the author obtained state funding to adapt England's Primary Language Record assessment to U.S. classrooms and piloted the literacy portion throughout California. Now 20 schools and districts across 8 states employ the Learning Record Assessment, accompanied by parental-involvement and…

Dissatisfied with the mismatch between letter grades and their new (state-mandated) curricular emphases, the Tucson (Arizona) Public Schools began experimenting with rubric descriptions of student progress. The prototype progress report assesses students in two general categories: learner qualities and content areas. Frequent communication with…

Systemic (top-down) educational reforms will remain limited unless they improve every teacher's methods and materials. Comprehensive or whole-school reform "scales up" effective schools until many more schools meet state and national standards. The federally funded Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration program provides a supportive…

After taking an environmental inventory of their community, seventh-graders in a Denver-area middle school decided to tackle the drinking water problem and fix it. The school is one of seven participating in Earth Force, an environmental and community-service-learning program based in Alexandria, Virginia. The program's progress and six-step…

Sponsored by West Chester University and the local League of Women Voters, the Kids Around Town Program is helping some Pennsylvania elementary school children develop responsible citizenship by involving them in community service activities. Students select a public policy issue affecting them. This issue serves as a springboard for study and…

Thanks to a joint effort between the Orange County (Florida) Schools and Peabody College of Vanderbilt University, nonreading middle schoolers are moving beyond shame to conquer literacy problems. Students participate daily in a learning lab employing multimedia software designed to improve word recognition, reading comprehension, and spelling…

In San Antonio, four schools are using the kindergarten level of the computer-based Waterford Early Reading Program to determine whether well-designed educational technology can bridge the gap between successful and disadvantaged schools. New technology and an old-fashioned buddy system are infusing classrooms with effective, dynamic teaching…

University of Toronto's Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, in partnership with the North York and Metropolitan Toronto Separate School Districts, began a two-year pilot program in 1995 that incorporates a school-improvement project into beginning teacher preparation. A key aim is preparing preservice teachers to be improvement-minded…