This document consists of the four issues of the "Journal of Educational Relations" published during 1995. The Journal's motto is "Promoting Student Achievement through Positive School-Home-Community Relationships." Articles in the first issue include: "Disarming Information: Ways to Counter Negative Critics" (Gerald Bracey); "Most Superintendents…

This paper examines the concept of "empowerment" and analyzes contrasting perspectives on the empowerment of parents that have informed developments at national and local levels in the United Kingdom and also in the United States and other countries. Empirical data illustrate the limited impact these approaches have on a group of…

Clinical supervision is a commonly accepted model used by supervisors of local school district teachers. Schools of Education at Harvard University (Massachusetts), the University of Virginia, and the University of Kansas, among others, have initiated clinical supervision projects using e-mail and the Internet, and have also created…

A telephone survey was undertaken in February 1996 of the 400 randomly selected members of the Oregon high school graduating class of 1995 and 400 ethnic minority graduates, in an update of a similar study done of the class of 1993. The study aimed to identify the percentage of the graduating class who attended a postsecondary institution in fall…

Foster homes have traditionally been considered transitional homes, where children receive good care for a limited time period. However, in recent years, many children have been drifting in foster care. Child welfare agencies are using new criteria for evaluating services, including the 1970s permanency planning idea--asserting the importance of…

Teachers of the middle grades are being asked to be advisors as well as instructors to their students. The teacher is expected to teach the whole child, showing awareness of the child's affective self as well as the cognitive self. The teacher as advisor is a new role--and one for which many teachers feel unprepared. This guide is designed to help…

This manual provides schools with guidelines for developing leadership training that empowers American Indian students to become contributing citizens of their school and community. In November 1994, the Association of Community Tribal Schools sponsored a seminar that sought input from American Indian students regarding leadership training. This…

This paper presents preliminary information from the first part of a long-term study of curriculum development in a sixth grade classroom in Hawaii. It describes: (1) the teaching practices implemented; and (2) the literacy attitudes and habits that developed within this environment. A ten-year veteran teacher with teaching experience across the…

This paper describes a Goals 2000 project intended to redesign preservice teacher education, practicing teacher roles, and student learning experiences within a Professional Development School framework. The team includes teaching faculty from the University of Akron (Ohio) College of Education Department of Curricular and Instructional Studies,…

This study examined 10 institutions of higher education with widely different characteristics to determine whether, in the process of implementing quality improvements, they had become "learning organizations." Data were gathered through questionnaires and interviews with more than 20 individuals at nine of the campuses, and were then…

These three papers were presented at a symposium on high-involvement work teams moderated by Michael Leimbach at the 1996 conference of the Academy of Human Resource Development. "Beyond Training to the New Learning Environment: Workers on the High-Involvement Frontline" (Joseph Anthony Ilacqua, Carol Ann Zulauf) shows the link between…

This paper presents a model of college choice that suggests that students' choice of college can be related to perceived "capital conversion" benefits. The model was tested on an evenly distributed sample (n=22,109) of students; one group attending elite colleges (with average freshman Scholastic Assessment Test scores of 1200 or higher)…

This book provides a detailed account of a year-long curriculum development project by an interdisciplinary team to create an inclusive, democratic curriculum at a suburban Georgia middle school. The first chapter is an overview of the study and lists the eight components deemed essential to a "coherent" curriculum. A separate chapter,…

This report provides a comprehensive review of quality principles in higher education and proposes that, when used holistically and systematically, the quality principles, also known as total quality management and continuous quality improvement, can create a culture for academic excellence. After an introduction, the first section explains the…

Despite the many limitations of standardized tests, schools use them to determine if children are ready for school, to group students for instruction, to diagnose learning disabilities and other handicaps, and to guide and control the curriculum and teaching methods. No test is good enough to serve as the sole or primary basis for important…