Feature films provide a significant form of historical evidence about a culture even when they are fictional. Like books, films are texts that can be analyzed, questioned, and discussed. Vintage films can, therefore, add a valuable new dimension to the history classroom. This article examines how popular films of the 1940s reveal the values,…

Successful schools acknowledge that collective responsibility for student learning occurs when strong teacher relationships and collegiality are present, but few school interventions are aimed at improving outcomes for teachers. In this study, a nonequivalent wait-list control group design was used to test the effects of teacher-to-teacher written…

The author studied a public junior high school identified as successfully implementing authentic instruction. Such instruction emphasizes higher order thinking, deep knowledge, substantive conversation, and value beyond school. To determine in what ways higher order thinking was fostered both for students with and without disabilities, the author…

This study examined whether those bullied in schools continued to show the effects of being bullied after they enrolled in an institution of higher education. There were 269 undergraduate students participating in the study. Previous studies (2006; 2008) conducted by the authors suggested the effects of bullying upon both the victim and bully are…

The current interest in learning Chinese has been fueled by the growing strength of the Chinese economy and the need for Americans who are able to communicate at an advanced level in fields of business, science, and government. The present study reports the results of a survey of secondary school students enrolled in Chinese language classes with…

This article addresses the difficulty of engaging middle school students who don't seem to care about learning. Several classroom vignettes illustrate practical, classroom-based dilemmas generated from a university classroom management course. Three positive engagement principles are proposed to address the challenge of the reluctant learner: get…

Although the nature of parent involvement changes as children get older and varies from family to family, junior high school teachers and the families they serve recognize the value of parent involvement in young adolescents' education. Teachers, parents, and students, however, are often uncertain about how to initiate parent involvement in their…

The current emphasis on school reform makes many demands on principals. The case study in this article describes the experiences of one urban junior high school principal who was part of a five-year federal grant that targets schools with at-risk youth. Themes that emerged from this qualitative study include school culture, educator and student…