Describes implementation of several different classroom organization plans within Wyoming's Douglas Elementary School East, allowing for response to varied student needs, parent wishes, and teachers' styles. The principal's role in the program is outlined. (PGD)

The differences between the philosophies and attitudes of standard and nonstandard mathematics instruction are outlined and the Math Course, a program at the University of California at San Diego which provides supplementary mathematics instruction to gifted elementary school students, is described. (SBH)

An account of the collaboration among Geoffrey Pyke, Susan and Nathan Isaacs, and Evelyn Lawrence in their association with the innovative Malting House School of Cambridge, England. (SS)

The "deschooling" program of Ivan Illich is defended. (JD)

This article presents: (1) an overview of some ideas about the diffusion of educational innovations; (2) a brief review of the literature in the field; and (3) some guidelines for developing curriculum innovations. (MM)

The author describes a program where students suspended from secondary schools can "cool off" before returning to the ordinary classroom. Sections address the background of the Parkhead Centre approach, program goals, indoor and outdoor activities, the admission system, and students' return to school. (SBH)

The article describes the Saturday Workshop program run by the Gifted Child Society in New Jersey, which offers gifted and talented students 50 different classes that are not available from the public schools. (DLS)

Argues that a librarian's traditional roles--keeper and retriever of knowledge, readers' advisor, information specialist--are most valid in the experiential learning process. As a place that voluntarily attracts many patrons who lack higher education, the library can serve as a "broker" between them and the educational institutions.…

Describes Chicago's Learning Exchange, an organization for connecting persons in the community who want to learn/teach something with those who want to teach/learn that thing. (Author/DC)

Grading on the basis of skills actually taught, and not on the basis of students' prior knowledge of composition, can simplify evaluation and promote learning. (KS)

Describes the "Commando Academy," a Milwaukee (Wisconsin) alternative school program for teenage parolees and other disaffected young people. (JG)

The private school exists to join with its publicly managed cousin to form a public education system of depth and variety and choice, not to be a sanctuary or a means of escape or a ghetto for the rich, but to give richness. (Author/IRT)

Interviewed young women in an alternative school regarding their disconnection from high school and reconnection in the alternative program. Students noted the importance of not focusing fixed notions of what at-risk students needed but instead emphasizing the complicated sense of students' identities to better understand the schooling experiences…

Policy initiatives to widen participation in education in Britain are counterproductive, widen the gulf between traditional and nontraditional education, and promote social exclusion. A fundamental rethinking of the educational system is required, shifting from structures that replicate a centralized system toward a focus on the needs of…

This article identifies four practices which increase the likelihood of success in work with troubled and troubling youth. These include the power of expectancies, therapeutic relationships, precision programming, and communication strategies. (Contains 11 references and 2 figures.) (Author)