A career academy is a small learning community within a high school, which selects a subset of students and teachers for a two-, three-, or four-year period. Students enter through a voluntary process; they must apply and be accepted, with parental knowledge and support. A career academy involves teachers from different subjects working together…

This article describes the creation of a First Year Experience learning community in a teacher education program. The First Year Experience model was adopted by the university because of declining enrollment, retention, and graduation rates and has been generally successful in the education department. With little information available for teacher…

In an effort to be comprehensive, schools often outline sweeping plans for improvement in multiple goal areas. Although well-intended, the efforts may be either too diffuse to have much impact, or so overwhelming that staff become immobilized. A school that chooses to proceed in too limited a manner, on the other hand, may run the risk of…

Although a growing body of research points to the critical need to foster reading, writing, speaking, and critical thinking skills for students in order to ensure their success in college, careers, and life, these efforts have tended to focus more on developing literacy skills in the early years, often ignoring secondary students. The outcome has…

Regardless of where you are in your school improvement process, here's a book that helps you make sure you have all the right elements working for you in the right way. The authors take you through the core processes that are essential for all school improvement efforts--from establishing your mission to differentiating your supervision based on…

If professional learning communities offer opportunities for improving the teaching and learning process, then developing strong professional development school (PDS) partnerships establish an appropriate framework for that purpose. PDS partnerships, however, can be less than effective without proper planning and discussion about the aims of those…

A considerable amount of time, effort, and other resources go into the development and implementation of education projects. Quite obviously, the goal is to create effective projects that can serve as models of excellence. Whether the project is an hour-long endangered species talk, a family festival, a severe weather awareness workshop, marine…

Guidelines for environmental organizations who wish to establish student internships or use interns more effectively are presented, based on 1983-1984 interviews and surveys of environmental group representatives. While the focus is on internships for undergraduate and graduate students, environmental interns may be recent college graduates, high…

This booklet provides guidelines for administrators, curricula directors, mathematics coordinators and supervisors, mathematics department chairmen, and classroom teachers for the orderly evaluation of improved mathematics programs. The purpose of the booklet was (1) to identify the kind of organization that enables the implementation,…

Designed for use by postsecondary educators involved in teaching displaced workers, this guidebook provides an in-depth look at successful upgrading and retraining programs in colleges in diverse situations across the country. The rationale for a human resource emphasis in economic development and the role of the two-year college in economic…

This book contains strategies for effective literacy coaching of teachers in districts and schools. Whether it's your job to start a literacy coaching initiative or to be an effective literacy coach to your colleagues, this guide has all the steps and strategies you need: (1) Roles and responsibilities of literacy coaches; (2) Keys to building…

This manual provides regulations to assist local education agencies in Georgia in planning, designing and implementing programs of compensatory education for Title I eligible children. The areas considered under program planning include: the responsibilities of local educational agencies, allocation and reallocation of funds, accounting of fiscal…

Why do secondary schools follow the practice of having student assemblies? What are these assemblies expected to accomplish? Who should be involved in planning them? What types of programs best suit educational, cultural, and informational purposes? How can systematic evaluation or appraisal of student assemblies be achieved? These and similar…

Offers seven research-based guidelines to reduce the risk for at-risk learners and help schools implement early childhood programs with a literacy-enriched focus that fosters greater understanding of written language. (SR)

Presents guidelines to be used when legislation which would expand existing early childhood programs for young children or create new programs is being considered. The categories for these guidelines include provisions for program standards to ensure quality programs; parental access and involvement; service eligibility; interagency linkages and…