In June 2007, the Arts Education Partnership (AEP) convened the directors of eight collaborative entities to discuss promising practices for integrating the arts into the lives and curricula of urban public schools as a means of fostering system-wide educational improvement. The seven school-community collaboratives and one higher education…

The author (a university instructor) and her community partner (a public school teacher) have collaborated in teaching an academic service-learning course in special education. This collaboration, the RAP (recreational activities project), was completed by university undergraduate students and young adults with cognitive impairment and/or…

"A Nation at Risk" sounded the call for school improvement and offered recommendations for bringing it about. "No Child Left Behind" was even more prescriptive in its approach to raising student achievement. However, as the author of this article points out, for all their recommendations and strategies, both reform efforts neglect the essential…

Numerous high school students, including many who are enrolled in career and technical education (CTE) courses, do not have the math skills necessary for today's high-skill workplace or college entrance requirements. This study tests a model for enhancing mathematics instruction in five high school CTE programs (agriculture, auto technology,…

In order to help teachers negotiate the changing contexts of foreign language education, the National K-12 Foreign Language Resource Center (NFLRC) at Iowa State University began offering summer institutes in 1994. The authors were surprised at the intense interest in the institutes focused on technology. Since then the NFLRC has offered 36…

Kindergarten has undergone dramatic changes since the implementation of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) in 2002. The literature on the challenges facing kindergarten teachers as a result of NCLB focuses primarily on curricular and instructional issues; little attention has been paid to NCLB's impact on the relational aspects of kindergarten teaching,…

The abstract nature of mathematics requires the communication of mathematical ideas through multiple representations, such as words, symbols, pictures, objects, or actions. Building representational fluency involves using mathematical representations flexibly and being able to interpret and translate among these different models and mathematical…

In Vietnam, despite the introduction of a new curriculum based on a child-centred education approach, there exist many problems and challenges in the educational process. To overcome these problems, the Vietnamese and Japanese governments have been conducting an in-service teacher-training programme, including school-based observation and…

A student's inability to keep pace with the demands of the classroom can produce painful feelings of inadequacy, performance anxiety, depleted motivation, and even behavioral maladjustment. Too often, schools respond to such students with well-intentioned procedures or guidelines that fail to meet the needs of the thwarted learner. However, in…

In 2002, when the authors began their three-year study of the problems new teachers face ("Supporting Beginning English Teachers"), No Child Left Behind (NCLB) had yet to have a significant impact on the lives of most classroom teachers. When they were interviewing beginning teachers, they had no idea that Jonathan Kozol was also in the…

Research says that there are measurable benefits to student outcomes that are the result of programs which provide time for teachers to collaborate successfully. According to Jane Belmore, focused and goal-driven collaborative planning time helps teachers become more highly qualified by improving teaching strategies, among other results. These…

Freed from the nuisances of paper-based methods, districts are making creative use of digital tools to move their curricular documents online, where educators can collaborate on course development and lesson planning. Back in 2003, Amarillo Independent School District (Texas) had begun using the Blackboard Content System to provide lessons online.…

As one part of a quality enhancement plan, North Carolina State University implemented a technology initiative with an initial focus on evaluating and improving classroom technology, piloting technology-rich workspaces for student projects, and initiating an internal grants program for faculty. An advisory committee directs the initiative with…

This article talks about the "special" support that special educators need from administrators. Special educators need the same type of support that regular teachers receive. Pairing regular and special education teachers allows special education teachers to contribute to and receive support from the other teachers in a school. Ensuring that…

This article describes the significant gains in student achievement in an urban elementary school when teachers worked together to develop, administer, and review assessment items. In grade-level teams, teachers completed item analyses and engaged in instructional conversations about students' needed instruction. (Contains 3 tables and 2 figures.)