In New Zealand, schools are given decile rankings based on census reports of parental socioeconomic status. An ongoing project seeks to identify beliefs and attitudes that make a teacher's work successful in low-decile primary schools in the greater Auckland area. This paper focuses on three teachers whose professional practice was considered…

High schools organized into schools-within-schools (SWS) have the capacity to create social capital, a sense of trust and connection among teachers and students that can be used in the service of teaching and learning. These differentiated social groupings, or subunits, can influence members' sense of identity during the transition to high school,…

A multi-age summer adventure camp at the University of Idaho offers 4 days of challenging activities in the wilderness to elementary age students, junior high leaders, high school counselors, and university interns. An associated private school offers up to 20 students, ages 3-10, an alternative to traditional public and private schools. Both…

Three presentations are provided from Symposium 17, Transformative Learning, of the Academy of Human Resource Development (HRD) 2000 Conference Proceedings. "Leadership Development as Transformative Pedagogy" (Olga V. Kritskaya, John M. Dirkx) examines the nature of transformative instructional environments, focusing specifically on the…

Adults who desire to increase their education need to find courses and programs that meet their needs, time schedules, and financial means. Increasingly, courses for adults will be conducted on the World Wide Web. Many colleges are conducting courses on the Web, and many adults are discovering that, after trying such a course, they actually like…

This paper focuses on contextual issues arising during an ethnographic study of mathematics instruction for Aboriginal children in New South Wales, Australia. Conversational interviews with Aboriginal children in grades 5-6, Aboriginal parents, and Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal teachers and staff identified context as 1 of 17 core categories of…

In response to an enrollment increase of 666,961 students over the past 10 years, Texas public schools have increased in both number and size. The number of Texas high schools with over 2,000 students increased by 35 percent from 1987-88 to 1997-98, and these very large schools now make up 14 percent of all regular instructional high schools.…

The National Association of School Psychologists recognizes that students who are of a minority sexual orientation, or are perceived to be, are at risk for a number of dangerous and destructive behaviors as well as harassment, discrimination, and low self-esteem. A successful program to address these issues educates both those who discriminate and…

This paper summarizes information concerning homicide crisis intervention in a multicultural school that would be useful for school psychologists. School psychologists are encouraged to be introspective about their own beliefs about death, grief, and multiculturalism. This paper discusses the eight factors to consider when providing services to…

Founded in 1969 in an inner-city neighborhood, the Albany Free School is based on real freedom, community, democratic principles, and affection and trust between teachers and students. This book provides an in-depth history of the Free School, including a brief analysis of its place in the broader scheme of things; describes the school with…

In 1994, four New York City school reform organizations joined to form the New York Networks for School Renewal (NYNSR) and received the first Annenberg Challenge urban grant. This midterm report describes NYNSR's progress so far. The first two sections present NYNSR goals and how those goals have been met in the first 3 years. The core premise,…

Nearly 160,000 students skip school each day because of intimidation by their peers. Bullying has been a persistent problem that, with the heightened attention to school violence, has been recently recognized as a pervasive issue needing attention. Bullying can take many forms; racial discrimination and sexual harassment are examples of abuse…

This study examined links between racial diversity on college campuses and positive educational outcomes. Data came from the Cooperative Institutional Research Program database, a longitudinal set of student and faculty surveys and research that assessed the impact of college on students. This study used data from a 1985 freshman survey and the…

The Learn-Ed Nations Inventory was designed by a panel of American Indian and Alaska Native master educators to determine how and to what extent a school is serving Native students and supporting their needs. The inventory encompasses all factors impinging on students, both directly and indirectly. Nine key school areas were identified to be…

The first wave of school improvement, largely perceived later as a failure, responded to Sputnik-era fears the United States was falling behind other nations, and focused on minor reforms of the educational system. Larry Cuban distinguishes the first-order changes of the first wave from the more fundamental changes implied in second wave efforts.…