In this article, the author stresses that teachers need to teach their students to think critically and to reason their way. One prerequisite for teaching critical thinking is a classroom climate of high expectations, teacher warmth and encouragement, and pleasant physical surroundings. Schools should see to it that students become progressively…

Most praise coming from teachers is ineffective or damaging because the compliments fail to encourage students. Praise should have three qualities: contingency, specificity, and credibility. Praise is most effective if it is personal, sincere, and focused on improvement and if it allows students to judge their own behavior and achievements without…

Typically, high performing schools are those with high test scores. Affluent students generally have higher scores than poorer students. True high performing schools require students to take rigorous courses, hire extremely competent teachers, and for teachers to know every student well. They use their limited funds efficiently to improve teaching…

By any measure--student achievement, social development, or democratic values--ability grouping and tracking practices are indefensible and unsupported by research. Tracking allows schools to practice in-school segregation and perpetuate unequal opportunities and unequal socialization within classrooms. Jonathan Kozol's investigation shows how…