In this classic essay, first published by the "Harvard Educational Review" in 1986, Vivian Gussin Paley details the beginnings of her career as a teacher and author. The article describes her methods of tape-recording and analyzing her students' daily engagement in the "three Fs: fantasy, fairness, and friendship." Her careful analysis provides…

Many families of children with challenging behaviors have experienced multiple changes in child care because of their child's behavior. While this is disruptive for families, it has even more serious consequences for children. For these children, consistency and continuity is critical to their long term outcomes. In order to build the capacity of…

This article is an excerpt from a keynote speech delivered by Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut at the 2007 Annual Conference of the American Montessori Society held last March 3, 2007 in New York City. In his speech, Dodd talked about how Dr. Maria Montessori literally took the teacher's desk out of the classroom when she developed the…

Equity in education relies on equal access to learning experiences and fair play during those experiences. Too often policy makers, voters and even some educators define equity only in terms of equal access. Equity is less about the same treatment for all and more about holding everyone to the same high standards and high expectations. All…

This article reports on an exploratory study of the factors perceived by school personnel to contribute to success in high-performing, high-needs (HPHN) rural schools. It is based on earlier research in HPHN schools that identified 4 key components of success (leadership, instruction, professional community, and school environment) and explored…

Four papers originating from the Kesher project, a project in Israel involving the construction, implementation, and scientific evaluation of an original Hebrew language intervention program for preschool (ages 0 to 6) children with hearing impairments, are presented. The four papers included are: (1) "Language Intervention in Prelinguistic…

Based on principals' own perceptions, this paper examines how the principal's role has changed, what constitutes principals' major problems or concerns, and how state and federal regulations and community pressures have affected the principal's role. The project identified and interviewed 56 public school principals for an 11-county area served by…

Using an attributional framework, the study examined college students' (N=529) expectations of their future economic outcomes and the role they perceived that discrimination would play in determining these outcomes. Expectancies for self, locus of causality for outcomes, self-esteem, locus of causality for failure, locus of causality for success,…

Students' expectancies for their future economic outcomes, differences in expectancies between ethnic groups, and the relationship of these expectancies to attributions and self-esteem are examined in two studies (Study 1, N=746; Study 2, N=2,130). An ANOVA was used. Study 2 is part of the first wave of a longitudinal study. Results indicate that…

The school experiences of African American male inmates are explored. Nine African American male inmates, ranging in age from 21 to 55, were interviewed regarding their schooling experiences. Interviews were recorded and transcribed to create a text, and themes were uncovered. Themes that describe their schooling experiences were identified. Four…

This study explored children's perceptions of good parenting. An open-ended question "What makes a good parent?" was asked of children aged 8 to 9 years, 14 to 15 years, and 17 to 18 years of age to investigate developmental processes. Adolescents' perceptions were compared to parents' perceptions using the same measure among 14- to…

To elicit some written comments about student views of revision, an English professor surveyed about 100 students in several different composition classes regarding what they would do if given the opportunity to revise a class paper. More than 80% of the responses explicitly mentioned errors in spelling, mechanics, or grammar. Several students…

This study examined the possibility that aspiring parents' and teachers' recalled experience with elementary school subjects affects their academic expectations for young children. The recalled experience of 103 university students majoring in education was measured by questions that asked: (1) how difficult and interesting each subject was for…

This paper briefly outlines the history of gifted education programs and identifies factors working against gifted education. It describes gifted program options and presents arguments for and against each option. The paper then presents the arguments of several critics outside the gifted education field who severely criticize the very presence of…

Experiences gleaned from teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) to Soviet Jewish refugees in San Diego, California, revealed many Soviet misconceptions about U.S. culture, as well as a keen intellectual curiosity, and an eagerness for knowledge. Classroom occurrences illustrate the characteristics of this group. Student attitudes and…