The second annual Affiliates' meeting of the National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools, and Teaching brought together 200 people to examine authentic teaching and assessment practices and policies. Nine presentations from the meeting are compiled in this document, illustrating different approaches to developing alternative assessment…

This publication examines school and classroom practices that increase students' understanding, raise their achievement, and equip them with knowledge and skills needed in today's world. Several approaches have been identified for high schools to consider in integrating academic and vocational studies: single course integration; joint planning…

The most important issue in education today is helping students reach high standards. These standards are changing American education from a system driven by inputs and regulations to one judged by results. This manual is intended for use with any set of standards. Followed step by step, it will take the teacher from the abstract statements of the…

This guide describes the Model of Interdisciplinary Training for Children with Handicaps (MITCH) program and suggests ways to implement this training program for Florida caregivers of infants and toddlers with disabilities on a local level. It includes guidelines for conducting training sessions and for training instructors. Specifically, the…

This document brings together six papers on language skills and language arts teaching of gifted students. "The State of the Art Issues in Language Study for High Ability Learners: Thinking about Language with Gifted Children" (Michael Clay Thompson) considers two areas traditionally included in discussions of language study--grammar and…

Noting that theme teaching offers opportunities to set up a classroom environment that fosters and encourages process learning, this book offers a rationale and activities for a thematic approach to instruction. The introduction of the book explores several issues: (1) assessing the strategies that children will learn as a result of theme teaching…

Heritage education is an interdisciplinary, interactive approach to examining the historical and cultural evidence of heritage that remains in neighborhoods, community, and regions. This paper seeks to answer some basic questions about heritage education, including: What is it? What are heritage educators seeking to accomplish? Is there a right…

In an attempt to improve its students' writing abilities, as well as their critical thinking skills, Lord Fairfax Community College, in Virginia, developed a program called "Thinking through Writing." The project designers believed that concept formation, classification, memory enhancement, and other learning/thinking skills could be…

This document is a report on 16 schools selected as Blue Ribbon Schools for their outstanding programs in geography or history. The report is divided into four parts. The first part discusses the curricular frameworks and guidelines for elementary and secondary schools in geography education. Areas discussed include: (1) current achievement and…

This document suggests that even within current fiscal constraints, existing curricular content needs to be as diverse as the nation's students. Issues of multicultural arts education that are discussed include cultural identity and heritage, "loss of memory," and language. The goals of multicultural arts education that were enumerated in Volume…

Teachers of history, introductory chemistry, and literature from Portland State University, Portland Community College, Clark College, Mt. Hood Community College, and Clackamas Community College (Oregon) have been working together to foster critical thinking in their students. Teachers in these disciplines have been meeting at their respective…

Interdisciplinary curriculum is a methodology that can help students gain the necessary content knowledge to support the following basic skills: (1) using language well and thoughtfully; (2) thinking through a problem and experimenting with solutions; (3) understanding scientific and technological ideas and using tools; (4) using imagination; (5)…

Citizenship is defined as an informed and critical orientation that individuals bring to the examination of public affairs, an orientation that may or may not be supportive of established authority or prevailing views. It is argued that only through an interdisciplinary approach to the social studies curriculum can students properly be helped to…

Japan and other countries of the Pacific Rim are Alaska's largest trading partners. This guide was designed to prepare Alaskan secondary students to understand past, present, and potential linkages between their state the Pacific region. The resource could be used by educators from other parts of the United States who teach about issues concerning…

If the current state of crisis in education in this country is to be remedied, certain reliable and verified concepts of education must be asserted and maintained. This paper suggests that the core concepts of the social sciences may be learned through exercises involving excerpts from "Great Books." These exercises involve learning the…