Discusses a study unit that integrated geography skills, language arts, and local history. Identifies the objectives of the lesson. Explains that students gathered information through interviews, letter writing, newspaper articles, and other research. Reports that students ultimately constructed a three-dimensional model of their community. (CH)

Describes an interdisciplinary survival project that piques middle school students' imaginations as it tests their problem solving and critical thinking skills in a survival setting. The futuristic time travel project integrates subject areas and fosters skills in communication, cooperation, and group decision making. (SM)

Highlighting three exemplary schools, Steve Lacayo defines a good school as a visionary community of parents, teachers, and students. Afterschool programs, accessible technology, small classes, and improved teacher training are essential ingredients. Other articles discuss related issues: vouchers, standards, the phonics/whole-language debate,…

Two groups of twelve dyslexic children and twelve good readers attended a two-week class during the summer following their enrollment in grades 4-6. The topic was the marine environment and focused on the adventures of an orca whale that had lost its family and needed the children's help. The children attended class for three hours each day, 45…

This paper reviews previous social science knowledge about non-English speaking background (NESB) immigrant communities in rural Australia with the aim of systematising what has been a diverse and fragmented literature. We propose a number of unifying themes which suggest the outlines of an emerging social science of ethnic minorities in rural…

"Chronicle of Higher Education" presents an abundant source of news and information for college and university faculty members and administrators. This December 10, 2004 issue of "Chronicle of Higher Education" includes the following articles: (1) "The Mental-Health Crisis: What Colleges Must Do" (Kadison, Richard…

Using a campus climate assessment instrument developed by Rankin (1998), we surveyed students (N = 7,347) from 10 campuses to explore the different experiences with harassment and campus climates reported by men and women. Both men and women reported experiencing harassment, although women experienced harassment at statistically significantly…

Given the rise in chronic kidney disease (CKD) in both children and adults, CKD has recently been targeted as a public health priority. Childhood onset kidney disease is generally a noncurable and progressive condition that leads to kidney failure by early adulthood. Fortunately, improved identification of kidney problems allows for early…

Teaching and learning online is one of several risky practices in higher education today that threaten to disfigure academics' work and identity. For many academics, accustomed to the tempo and practices of face-to-face teaching, it threatens disorientation. In this article the author examines the teaching beliefs of a computer science lecturer,…

The provision of a coherent "parenting," "teaching," and "developmental" program is a complex undertaking. It has all the makings of an organizational, managerial, and therapeutic nightmare when different types of workers, with marked differences in personality and values, become responsible for different children with a variety of problems in a…

E-learning leads to evolutions in the way of designing a course. Diffused through the web, the course content cannot be the direct transcription of a face to face course content. A course can be seen as an organization in which different actors are involved. These actors produce documents, information and knowledge that they often share. We…

This article presents findings from a 4-year study of 13 culturally and linguistically diverse elementary schools implementing comprehensive school reform (CSR) models. The study focused on: (a) the actions at the state and district levels that facilitated or inhibited reform implementation; (b) the adaptability of the various reforms in…

As welfare-to-work reforms increase women's labor market attachment, the lives of their young children are likely to change. This note draws on a random-assignment experiment in Connecticut to ask whether mothers' rising employment levels and program participation are associated with changes in young children's early learning and cognitive growth.…

Close to 1,100 people attended the 55th Annual Meeting of the National Reading Conference at the Intercontinental Hotel in Miami, Florida from November 30-December 3, 2005. A record number of proposals were submitted this year (548), with 392 papers, symposia, and round tables accepted. This year's conference theme was inclusiveness and synthesis…

Over the last 3 decades, educators have found an overwhelming relationship between parent education levels, parental involvement, and children's school success. Family literacy affects parents' effectiveness in helping their children learn. These are the four components of comprehensive family literacy: (1) interactive literacy activities between…