It is proposed that a recent court decision concerning default on National Health Service Corps scholarship obligations has addressed thoroughly and resolved all the arguments made by defaulting recipients, placing the scholarships in the realm of grant-in-aid programs and removing common-law defenses of the defaulting student. (MSE)

Describes Florida's "Fit to Achieve," a cardiovascular fitness education program for elementary students. Children are taught responsibility for their own cardiovascular fitness through proper exercise, personal exercise habits, and regular aerobic exercise. The program stresses collaborative effort between physical educators and…

Unlike systemic/academic reforms, renewal programs identify democratic education's central purposes and processes, interpret them in contemporary terms, and seek to strengthen them. The uniform standards movement may handicap these efforts by eliminating many student choices and discouraging the rational political discussion underlying liberal…

To motivate students, teachers should involve students in setting objectives, individualize objectives, set priorities, demonstrate a subject's relevance, help students learn to learn, create positive first experiences, introduce the unfamiliar through the familiar, appeal to student interest and curiosity, reward success, vary strategies, and…

An administrative assistant at an Illinois elementary school designed a practicum around a rules-review process supported by the principal and her teacher leadership team. Students brainstormed with their teachers to develop rights and responsibilities statements, which were forwarded to the student council. The process converted 68 rules to 5…

Discusses the inclusion of technology in the liberal arts general education curriculum at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota and the changes that have been made in the curriculum content. Contends that the introduction of technology within art courses will encourage more student responsibility and cater to their future needs. (CMK)

Behavior problems demanding severe disciplinary actions are disruptive, eroding forces in classrooms. Effective group guidance programs have students keep track of concerns, problems, or difficulties encountered. The Problem Tracker, allowing students to record stressful or problematic situations, provides a buffer permitting more thoughtful…

Discusses the "Gardendale Family"--a vertically aligned team of K-6 classrooms. Notes that the family sought to develop a sense of community within the school; promote family involvement; develop a cognitively engaging and culturally connected curriculum; engage students in authentic learning; and develop programs to encourage individual…

Offers reflections on lingering issues raised in this themed issue on the "Gardendale Family": maintaining the integrity of the family; issues of time; curriculum standards; and effects on the rest of the school. Offers a bibliography of works considering the global concerns which prompted the formation of the Gardendale Family. (SR)

Since students possess intimate knowledge about their academic progress, they should be invited to participate in, or even lead, parent-teacher conferences. Interested middle schools should consider piloting their models, focus on the conference model process, have students identify personal goals, clearly define participants' roles, and evaluate…

This qualitative study compared the instructional environments of a resource room and two regular classrooms for four intermediate grade students identified as severely learning disabled. Results suggested that regular classroom teachers need to provide students with LD with more explicit conceptual explanations of cognitive requirements of tasks…

Discusses ways to empower student learning in middle schools by providing learning environments that encourage student input, influence, and responsibility; respect cultural pluralism; and engineer congruence between the content and methods of instruction and students' life experiences and cognitive styles. (JPB)

Participant responsibility in outdoor education programs is placed on a continuum from passenger status through participant and partner to practitioner. Corresponding leader roles are directive, coaching, supporting, and delegating. The disempowering effects of the passenger approach to risk management and the value of teaching a group to manage…

Presents instructional concerns and strategies for ethnic/culture-based courses. Focuses on four student issues: (1) uncomfortableness with ambiguous concepts; (2) different levels of ethnic/cultural identity development; (3) fear of examining personal biases and assumptions; and (4) emotions from the acquisition of new information. (CMK)

Summarizes lessons learned across two programs of research which featured peer collaboration to promote advanced literacies, including text comprehension and scientific reasoning, identifying lessons learned from reciprocal teaching research and ways that this research influenced the design of cognitive tools and intellectual roles, which were…