Describes how the Fort Wayne (Indiana) Community Schools improved black students' academic achievement by developing a core curriculum and creating a student-centered learning environment focusing on individualized learning. (PKP)

Applies principles of constructivism and virtual reality (VR) to computer-aided design (CAD) curriculum, particularly engineering, by integrating network, VR and CAD technologies into a Web-based learning environment that expands traditional two-dimensional computer graphics into a three-dimensional real-time simulation that enhances user…

The development of teacher evaluation systems that promote professional growth is discussed, based on studies in South Kitsap, North Haven, and Levittown of adult development and teacher evaluation and the professional experiences of D. L. Duke. "Decoupling" accountability from professional growth provides the best means of forwarding…

An alternative to the consumptive approach to reform is a productive model which utilizes practitioners' knowledge and seeks ways to enhance this knowledge. A dialogical evaluation method, such as horizontal evaluation, is one way to encourage teachers to recover what they know and to articulate and assess this knowledge. (IAH)

This article identifies several reasons for demands for teacher and student accountability. Minimum competency testing of students and teachers is discussed within the context of the accountability movement, and the implications of such testing as an evaluation tool are considered. (IAH)

This article focuses on the variety of cultural meanings students articulate when asked about their experiences within the special context of a multiethnic California high school. The article presents excerpts from verbatim accounts in which four Black students, part of a three-year study, describe their worlds in their own words. (IAH)

Reports on two studies that examined teachers' perceptions of the characteristics of good schools. Notes that institutional biases exist in all types of schools. Found high levels of agreement among primary, secondary, and special school teachers' ratings of the qualities of good schools. (KO)

This article examines the efforts and impact of New South reformers to use the examples of industrial training developed at Tuskegee and Hampton Institutes, which were designed to uplift African-Americans, as models of appropriate education for poor Whites. (IAH)

This article explores the significance of practical arts education in both the utopian literary tradition and American social development. An argument is presented that land grant colleges partly evolved in response to the ideas expressed in literary utopias regarding the utilization of knowledge for individual and social betterment. (IAH)

Examines ritualized beginning moments of three high school teachers' classes. Reveals the moral significance of what is treated as the routine of readying a class for instruction. Teachers and students are found to share assumptions which include a sense of responsibility, a respect for role, and a seriousness of purpose. (JS)

Contends that psychologists can benefit by understanding the religious development of religious clients. Reviews theories of religious development and research on a variety of issues involving religion over the life span. Investigates implications of theory and research on religious involvement in therapy and identifies important questions for…

Describes Holy Angels School in Chicago (Illinois), the largest all-Black preschool through grade 12 Roman Catholic school in the United States. Discusses the roles of administration, parents, faculty, and students in creating the educational environment. (FMW)

Review of recent literature on learning-to-learn focuses on how to improve learning activities. Highlights include criterion variables that influence learning activities; prerequisites of learning, including prior knowledge, intellectual capability, environmental factors, and motivation; learning strategies; how to teach learning strategies; and…

Conventional schooling too often ignores the influence of school culture on what is learned in school. Knowledge is situated, being in part a product of the activity, context, and culture in which it is developed and used; this is known as cognitive apprenticeship. Implications for understanding learning and teaching are discussed. (Author/BJV)

1,003 teachers and 66 principals in 66 elementary schools assessed the effects of various levels of parental involvement on school quality variables. School socioeconomic status, teacher degree level, grade level, class size, teachers' and principals' perceptions of teacher efficacy, organizational rigidity, and instructional coordination were…