Parents of young adults with developmental disabilities transitioning from mandated school services to adult services may face dilemmas when decisions present conflicting choices with equally problematic outcomes for the family. A questionnaire was administered to 103 families to determine which potential dilemmas were most significant for…

Maintains that the collegiate chapters of the Music Educators National Conference act as an excellent training ground for student leaders. Recommends continuing the support and guidance for these students to emerge as leading teachers. Provides specific advice for MENC chapter advisors on fostering support and independence. (MJP)

This teacher examined the effect of allowing her first graders to choose their own topics for writing. She gathered and analyzed evidence from observations, discussions, surveys, and Likert-like scales, then changed the way she facilitated and taught writing. Students wrote from their imaginations and experiences and became more original, genuine,…

This article reviews the assessment procedures, treatment procedures, and the advantages and disadvantages of three professional-family team models: multidisciplinary teams, interdisciplinary teams, and transdisciplinary teams. Guidelines for optimal team participation are provided. The importance of mission statements, communication, trust,…

Explains curriculum mapping, a computerized method for use in educators' decision-making in elementary and secondary education. Topics include the role of media specialists with information literacy, collection development, and curriculum support; identifying gaps in skills and assessment; aligning assessments with standards; and timeliness.…

A close relationship exists between German society, the political system, and public schools. Following reunification, the school systems in former East Germany have undergone dramatic changes to accommodate the philosophy of democracy. The state of Saxony's changes include parent and student participation in school governance, emphasis on…

Draws on ethnographic fieldwork in southern Bolivia to explore how rural Bolivian youth negotiate structural constraints on choices of work versus secondary education, including local versus urban location, economic resources, parental attitudes, gender, family characteristics, social networks and support, and peer role models. Suggests the notion…

An intergovernmental council on sustainable development in the Arctic discussed fisheries, wildlife, forestry, mining, oil and gas, tourism, finance and marketing, communication and education, and youth initiatives. Emerging themes included community involvement in decision making, acknowledging indigenous peoples' rights and knowledge,…

Studied the amount of measurement error in a state's performance-based writing task as it relates to high-stakes decision reproducibility. Using 175 eighth-grade writing samples, the study finds moderate correlations between the two raters' scores, with significant differences for the rates for the handwritten, but not the typed, essays.(SLD)

A qualitative study of attitudes of African American high school students on the economic aspects of the decision to attend or not attend college concluded that these students factored in both the expected costs and any future earnings, recognizing both the job market limitations faced by African Americans and their personal desires for wealth.…

Discusses the service projects at Hoover Elementary School in Iowa City, Iowa that link economic education, service learning, and global education. Describes one project where the students involved the community in sending educational materials and financial aid to a school in Brazil. (CMK)

Explains that authentic teaching and assessment enable students to utilize their prior knowledge, recent learning, and critical thinking and problem-solving skills in real-world contexts. Describes examples of authentic teaching and assessment that use the "Voluntary National Content Standards in Economics" as a framework for economics…

Case-based pedagogy focuses on teachers' problem solving, decision making, reflective practices and their own personalized theory about teaching and learning. Research has shown that case-based pedagogy enables teachers to improve their actions in teaching and learning from multiple perspectives, reflective thinking, active participation and…

This chapter provides an overview of the literature on organizational learning and the learning organization, sets out key concepts in each area, and reviews the way that organizational learning and the learning organization have been applied within higher education.

Even though social studies teachers may value discussion of controversial issues, such practice is rare in most social studies classrooms. Nystrand, Gamoran, and Carbonaro (1998) reported that 90 percent of the instruction they observed in more than one hundred middle and high school classes involved no discussion at all. What teachers cite as…