Charter schools that have partnered with nonprofit, for-profit, and public organizations have leveraged a wealth of human, financial, and organizational resources to help the schools improve. The authors suggest that all schools can learn from the charter schools' experience. (Contains 8 endnotes.)

Linden Services for Children is part of Extern, which is a charity within the voluntary sector. The organisation's mission is to promote social inclusion and help reduce the incidence of offending behaviour. Extern operates in both the North and South of Ireland and works with children, families, adults and communities. It aims, through assessment…

This paper explores 122 secondary school students' perceptions of the choral learning environment. A survey questionnaire was developed taking into consideration the responses of a pilot study in which students were requested to list what they liked and disliked about the choir. The participants rated their degree of agreement on a five-point…

Children face many important changes in the first eight years of life, including different learning centres, social groups, roles and expectations. Their ability to adapt to such a dynamic and evolving environment directly affects their sense of identity and status within their community over the short and long term. In particular, the key turning…

Learning how to teach depends on the dynamic inter-relationships among many parts and people; however, research on learning how to teach has typically focused on confined aspects of teacher education (e.g., a specific methods course) over short periods of time (such as one semester). In response, Wideen, Mayer-Smith, and Moon (1998), in their…

This case study explores the reality shock experienced by a White novice teacher, committed to socially just teaching, in her first year in an urban context. The apparently successful novice held three beliefs about her practice and herself: that socially just teaching was a holistic practice; that it could and should be done "right"; and that,…

This report presents the deliberations of the Northwest Regional Advisory Committee (NW RAC), one of 10 RACs established under the Educational Technical Assistance Act of 2002 to assess the educational needs of the region. The Northwest RAC accepted its charge to identify educational needs and to make recommendations, working collaboratively as…

Sharing classroom practices across international borders can add new dimensions to teaching methods, no matter where one calls home. With this idea in mind, the authors (two U.S. early childhood teacher educators and a Kenyan-born U.S. early childhood teacher) have corresponded for several years through e-mail with a small group of early childhood…

This report summarizes key findings from the literature on effective developmental education practice. It is designed to promote discussion among community college educators and state agency staff in Connecticut as they consider how to improve outcomes for their many students who are academically unprepared to succeed in college. One common theme…

This research highlights the learning of female offenders on a 20-day tailor-made experiential adventure education course (Women in Action) delivered by Outward Bound New Zealand. The aims of the course were to increase self-awareness, to develop an understanding of the concept of choice and self responsibility, to improve communication skills and…

A growing number of education reformers are justifying their reform strategies by pointing to the findings of developmental brain research, theories of information processing, and the needs dictated by today's information-rich world. They advocate integrative education, which places students in a holistic context. This digest describes the…

The essence of understanding visual literacy lies in the visually literate exploration of issues process. This understanding must deal with both the processes involved in the creation and interpretation of concrete visual communication. Visual discourses's greatest contribution to human knowledge and thought is not the sequential, linear,…

John Dewey employed the phrase "water-tight compartments" to mark deficiencies of integration within an individual's personality. For Dewey, the self is complex, but a strong personality integrates its various habits so that they reinforce rather than conflict with one another. Dewey's focus on this problem of personality has relevance…

This paper argues that the possibility of a radical alternative is rarely examined in educational administration theory. In assuming the need for managed organizations, most researchers and practitioners perpetuate the status quo. However, the efforts of de Chardin, Jung, Schumacher, Capra, and Steiner indicate that a unified, holistic paradigm is…

National concerns about the quality and effectiveness of science teaching have resulted in several efforts directed at restructuring the United States' science curriculum. This digest discusses recent initiatives of the Earth Systems Education. Topics discussed include: (1) efforts to understand the planet Earth; (2) the Program for Leadership in…