The National Honor Societies, administered by the National Association of Secondary School Principals, continue to play an important role in our nation's junior and senior high schools. The author, a former director of the Societies, discusses their purposes. (Editor/RK)

Acquiring an education demands consistently hard work; teachers do their students a disservice by not insisting on high standards of performance. (JD)

The background and meaning of the current controversy over the intrusion of the federal government into institutional accreditation is given, along with a guide to governing board actions. (LBH)

The academic profession, whose responsibilities and standards are less clearly defined than those of other learned professions, stands in need of fresh and continuing reflection on its role, suggests the author. (Editor/LBH)

Examines concepts of excellence from the viewpoint of individual habits of mind that foster it, the role of culture in promoting it, the relationship to technical mastery versus world class performance, and its controversial relationship to equity. Recommendations for promoting excellence in gifted students and all students are provided. (CR)

Recommends a number of techniques and transitional activities to bridge the gap between traditional cookbook activities and the type of inquiry envisioned by the National Science Education Standards. Includes discussion on techniques related to safety and the habits of good scientists. (DDR)

Discusses findings of a survey of 304 elementary school teachers from six eastern Massachusetts school districts. Teachers' values often conflicted with their school districts' formal grading systems. (LMI)

The 10-year-old High Schools that Work program of the Southern Regional Education Board has improved test scores of vocational students and attempts to demonstrate that career-bound students can handle high-level curriculum. Despite successes, some states and school districts are reluctant to adopt the program. (SK)

Argues that the "Standards for the English Language Arts" (SELA) gives English teachers direction. Discusses what "teaching English" means. Suggests that SELA is not a prescriptive list of measurement items nor a cookbook for skillful English teaching: SELA is a statement of principles of, for, and by professionals, and a K-12 statement of…

Traces the public furor that greeted the National Council of Teachers/International Reading Association's "Standards for the English Language Arts." Discusses responses to criticisms. Argues that the language in the "Standards" is flat; the standards are meant to be guidelines, not mandates; and the emphasis was on process. (RS)

Describes how the revised Taxonomy was used to plan and implement a co-taught, integrated, thematic unit, examining how statements of objectives, instructional activities, and assessments helped develop this unit and describing three ways that the revised Taxonomy assisted in unit design (providing a common language; suggesting ways to integrate…

Describes U.S. teacher education reform, noting how most social problems are judged educational problems and explaining that, though education is a state responsibility, there is considerable similarity across the 50 states. Both public and teacher education are strictly scrutinized and considered one source of today's presumed school failure. The…

Examines attitudes of insecurity regarding the status of English language teaching as a profession. Touches on the tradition of graduates using English teaching as fall-back to writing a great novel and on English language teachers committed to high professional standards. Concludes that such standards are necessary for an international language…

Summarizes examples of assessment strategies put forth by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics in "Assessment Standards for School Mathematics." Strategies include teacher observation of student behavior, problem-solving projects that involve one or more students, and having students write responses to math problems. (CR)

Discusses key provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act related to performance standards, adequate yearly progress targets, and the challenges such targets present for states and schools. Notes different states' approaches to assessment and discusses possible uses of results from the biennial state-level administrations of the National Assessment…