New American Schools (NAS) was formed in 1991 to create and develop whole-school designs that would be adopted by schools throughout the country in order to improve student performance. This book is a retrospective on NAS and draws together the finding from RAND research. Chapter 1, the introduction, gives an overview of NAS, RAND's purpose and…

Suggesting that too often initiatives have been placed in schools without attention to the implementation process, this paper discusses a model used in a professional development program for teachers of beginning reading and then describes and documents how each feature of the model was addressed through development and implementation work. The…

This guide presents the lessons learned from three health education projects that focused on young worker issues and were funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. In these projects, occupational health educators worked for 3 years, in three different communities, to raise the awareness of young worker issues, including…

This guide provides a framework and suggestions for strengthening the quality and impact of parenting education services in Even Start. It is aimed at Even Start state coordinators and local program administrators responsible for supporting and monitoring the quality of parenting education services in Even Start, and at local program staff…

The International Bureau of Education (IBE) is focusing its program activity on the adaptation of the content of education to the challenges of the 21st century. IBE's program has two components: integrating the concern of living together into the content of education; and adapting the content of education to cope with some of the challenges…

This booklet presents descriptions of the 22 Illinois schools that were identified by the Best Practices and Resource Committee of the Right to Read Initiative as providing leadership and learning in the area of best practices in reading. The description of each school's program includes demographic data; data on which of the 14 best practices in…

The accountability report of the Georgia University System summarizes expenditures and progress made in achieving earlier goals. Following an overview which identifies major strategies toward the goal of a more educated Georgia, a section summarizes progress on major initiatives broken down into those funded in 1995-1997 legislative sessions,…

Researchers designed and piloted a questionnaire that measures the level of implementation of exemplary middle school practices (based on the work of P. George and W. Alexander, 1993) using Rasch measurement theory. Assistant principals (n=26) participated in telephone interviews by responding to a 27-item questionnaire that contains items…

This compilation includes practical and transferable principles that can be used by service-learning practitioners. The 39 case studies and personal essays in the compilation are organized around critical issues in strengthening long-term institutional and community support for K-12 service-learning programs. Each article describes how the issue…

This bulletin describes the objectives and elements of an effective juvenile justice system and suggests legislative and administrative strategies for its implementation. An effective juvenile justice system must meet the three objectives of holding the juvenile offender accountable, enabling the offender to become a capable and productive…

Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition (PLAR) is a sound academic practice that contributes to adult learning by linking formal and informal learning. However, it has not been widely accepted by Canadian educational institutions. In 1996, a consortium of seven colleges and an independent PLAR consultant began a study to create a comprehensive…

The practice of sustained silent reading (SSR) is based on the belief that motivation, interest, self-selection, modeling, and time spent reading contribute to student reading achievement. A study was designed to ascertain the prevalence of SSR in classrooms in a particular geographic area and the degree to which the program's original goals are…

A current initiative at many institutions is the formation of "learning communities" that link or cluster courses around an interdisciplinary theme and enroll a common cohort of students. This study examined the attitudes and perceptions of students, faculty and administrators who were involved in a learning community to determine the…

This report provides summaries of the projects funded under phase three of the Fund for the Development of Teaching and Learning (FDTL) in England. The FDTL aims to stimulate developments in teaching and learning and to involve institutions in implementing good practice. A total of 33 projects were funded under phase three, at a total cost of 6.8…

This paper describes a 1-year study of 120 fifth-grade students whose teachers participated in a program entitled Project SMILE (Science and Math Integrated with Literary Experiences). The purpose of the study was to determine the extent to which the classroom implementation of Project SMILE positively influenced the classroom environment and…