Authors Casey Reason and Brandon J. Larson advocate for the strategic design and development of impactful activities and athletics to enhance school culture. Their Rally model provides strategies for aligning extracurricular programs with academic goals, fostering leadership, and boosting participation and engagement. The Rally approach improves…

Urban high-school students' low average level of academic achievement is a national problem. A lack of academic progress is a factor that contributes to students failing to graduate. In response to these urban high school student problems, a growing number of urban charter high schools have opened as an alternative to the traditional public high…

Establishing effective transition programs for students entering high school is an ongoing process. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore best practices transition programs employ to aid student's success. The participants in this study were six administrators chosen from a population of administrators at 60 central Indiana high…

Education leaders across the country confront a growing challenge: too many students are not college ready when they leave high school. Although indicators exist to identify students at risk of dropping out of high school, few indicators of students' college readiness are currently in place, and few districts have linked indicators to practices…

Maryland is the first state to require every student to perform service as a condition of receiving a high school diploma. In Baltimore, once electives became mandatory, a new coordinator for service learning was appointed, a service-learning program--the Baltimore Alliance for Student Service--was established, and a revised five-year…

An inservice model was developed to assist teachers in asking students the kinds of questions that facilitate higher order thinking. Higher order thinking involves problem identification and definition, hypothesizing, collecting, analyzing and synthesizing data, and formulating conclusions that upon application will prove valid. Based on this…

A description is given of the development and evaluation of a staff development model that was used by District of Columbia teachers. The model was based on the belief that teachers learn best through an analysis of their own behavior and thoughtful application of ideas to their own contexts. The first phase of the study defined over 50…

Included in Israel's population is a culturally disadvantaged group comprised primarily of immigrants and their children from non-European backgrounds such as North African and Middle Eastern countries. This group has shown a lower level of educational achievement than their European counterparts, and a number of education and social policies have…

The paper describes steps taken in initiating a program for gifted students undertaken in 11 secondary schools in Cape Province, South Africa. The development of an identification model was made difficult because the fixed South African educational system inhibits creativity and productive thinking abilities. Factors used to select students for…

Eighty-six "at-risk" students (aged 14-16) participated in an 8-week program of immersion in vocational training, academics, counseling, recreation, and performing arts. Students improved in academic areas and in their understanding of the world of work, but self-concept measures showed a decline and the program's impact on dropout likelihood was…

Describes the development of an educational community that was created for assisting alienated high school students. The article describes how the teachers and school administration moved through the conception, design, planning, and implementation phases of the study-team process. Concluding comments highlight how the program helped marginalized…

Extracurricular activities have enhanced the lives of students through the years and continue to provide students with additional skills they need to succeed in school and life. This paper offers an extensive literature review of the effect of extracurricular activities on student development and offers a plan for extending successful…

Intensive education is an alternative educational approach in which students study one or two subjects a day for a concentrated number of weeks. This report considers whether intensive study is a valid alternative to the traditional class schedule and discusses the strengths, values, and problems of intensive education. Data sources for the report…

Describes the "Circle of Learning" project, which establishes collaborative relationships and is aimed at addressing issues that often prevent American-Indian students from attaining success in secondary and post-secondary education. Discusses the necessary steps for the project's implementation and the activities involved in the project. (YKH)

This paper describes a project at Indiana University initiated to develop research-based skills associated with instructional clarity in prospective secondary school teachers. The specific courses targeted for the project include an educational psychology course, a general methods course, and four special methods courses. Each course involves a…