Presents case studies of four college students applying new study strategies, taught and demonstrated in class during one semester, to improve reading and learning. Finds that students need to see a correlation between a study strategy and their final grade before they will utilize deep-level study strategies in place of surface-level strategies.…

Tony Hopson founded and directs Self Enhancement, Inc., a nonprofit program that helps inner-city youth in Portland (Oregon) improve academically and develop talents, skills, values, and attitudes needed to become positive, contributing members of society. The program's success is based on the relationship model, continuity of services,…

Describes Sudbury Valley School (Framingham, Massachusetts), established in 1965 as an alternative to public education. Discusses the educational philosophy of the democratic school, which stresses the importance of children being free and learning how to govern themselves; daily activities at the school; and how the school has achieved fiscal as…

Asserts that elementary students should know the basic vocabulary of economics, in particular, the "Significant Six": (1) goods and services; (2) productive resources; (3) scarcity; (4) opportunity cost; (5) specialization; and (6) exchange. Provides a lesson called "Benny's Pennies" that focuses on goods and services that…

This article describes a training program, Self-Regulation Empowerment Program (SREP), that school professionals can use to empower adolescent students to engage in more positive, self-motivating cycles of learning. It is a two-part approach whereby self-regulated learning coaches (SRC) (a) use microanalytic assessment procedures to assess…

The authors assess the kinds of college experience that affect students' development of character. (Contains 2 tables.)

In this chapter, the authors argue that alignment of higher education with workforce needs should be based on careful action by institutions to embed skills and attributes within instructional programs. (Contains 2 tables and 1 figure.)

As community colleges embrace learning-centered practices, student affairs professionals have an opportunity to recommit to building and maintaining partnerships with their academic colleagues. This chapter explores the development, nature, and culture of learning-centered partnerships between academic and student affairs professionals, identifies…

Developing children's capacity to learn is at the forefront of all endeavours in schools. Teachers strive to capitalise on a wide range of teaching styles and innovations to stimulate, motivate and engage their children to become "better learners". Since September 1999, the Centre for Science Education at Sheffield Hallam University has…

This paper reports on one component of a school-university collaborative in El Paso, Texas, to create pathways to college and the teaching profession for Latino and Latina high school students. As part of the Institute for Educational Inquiry's "Diversity in Teaching and Teacher Education" initiative (1997-2000) at The University of…

Based on a two-year ethnographic study at an urban middle school, this article describes the power that images created by and about Puerto Rican girls hold in shaping their schooling experiences. Using a black, critical, feminist framework, I show how dichotomizing the sexuality of Puerto Rican females against their intellectual development…

This Policy Brief describes an analysis conducted with a sample of 5,000 elementary students in 123 K-6 elementary schools in Hawai'i to describe students' proficiency levels and individual growth patterns over time and, based on this information, to make judgments about school effectiveness in meeting performance standards. The goal was to…

"Skills for Action," a program to build positive character values and life and citizenship skills for students in grades 9-12, includes classroom lessons and service learning. The program, with more than 100 lessons focused around 26 personal, social, and thinking skills, ranges from one semester to four years in length. Students explore…

Chris Barbic, a Teach For America corps member, started Project Youth Engaged in Service (YES) in 1995. He wanted to offer his former elementary-school students an alternative to the low-performing middle schools they otherwise would attend. Since then Barbic has led a high-energy team of educators in refining a comprehensive approach to helping…

Drawing on previous chapters in the volume, this chapter identifies crosscutting themes and lessons for those engaged in the development and study of academic pathways. Particular attention is paid to the ways that pathways can increase opportunities for traditionally underserved students.