Jim Gray's vision of "teachers teaching teachers" writing, through dogged persistence, has become reality as the National Writing Project, precursor to the Bay Area Writing Project. These projects, depending on cooperative university-school relations and effecting meaningful change over time, have influenced nearly one million teachers since their…

Describes the career and professional accomplishments of Siegfried Ramler, from his job as translator at the Nuremberg trials to his current role as administrator at Punahou School in Hawaii. The most powerful expression of Ramler's internationalism is the 20-year-old Pan Pacific Program, now firmly rooted in Hawaiian educational life. (MLH)

As director of Association for Supervision and Curriculum for 19 years, Gordon Cawelti traveled over 2 million miles to improve curriculum and teaching and provide leadership. After upgrading conference and journal quality in early years, Cawelti concentrated on promoting team leadership and developing a global education model. On retirement,…

Through her studies of "subordinated populations," Shirley Brice Heath has committed herself to fostering appreciation of diverse cultures and understanding how those cultures affect children's learning experiences. While at Stanford University, Heath began studying neighborhood-based organizations in three major cities. These groups helped…

After conducting 10 interviews with outstanding educators for the "Educational Leadership" portrait series, the author realized his subjects had more in common than extraordinary achievement. They shared patterns constituting a leitmotif in their careers--characteristics such as vision, tenacity, recursiveness, time commitment, and dedication to…

From his early work to establish teacher's union to involvement with civil rights issues, Al Shanker has earned reputation as education profession's moral conscience. Under Shanker's leadership, United Federation of Teachers has grown from 2,500 to 110,000 members. American Federation of Teachers has doubled membership to 796,000. Shanker…

Although Reuven Feuerstein's programs for culturally deprived, retarded, and autistic children have taken him 50 years to refine, this aging practitioner/philosopher/scholar looks forward to making further breakthroughs in helping "hopeless" youngsters grow and prosper. His Learning Potential Assessment Device, instead of pegging individuals,…

Known as "Doc" by his students, as a troublemaker by his critics, as good copy for journalists, and as a dedicated professional by his supporters, Dennis Littky is guided by an impassioned desire to improve education, regardless of the personal risks involved. He became a maverick principal to influence educational change. (MLH)

James P. Comer, a distinguished Black child psychiatrist born of sharecropper parents, credits his family's values and continued support for his success in college. In 1968, Comer and his colleagues developed a school-based management team to help poor families and schools develop trust and mutual respect. The program is widely used in New Haven…

Seymour Papert's brainchild LOGO is present in at least one-third of American classrooms and has expanded internationally to enhance learning in small Latin American towns and rural Soviet schools. His latest project involves teaching 18 Boston public school teachers to program and helping students learn in a computer-rich environment. (MLH)

Profiles Andre Allison and Florence Mondry, English teachers at Shoreham-Wading River High School (New York), who have placed composition at the center of their curricula, giving students more responsibility and fostering cooperative learning. Both use reading logs to help students interpret literature intelligently and extract meaning from their…

Known for his work with the Coalition of Essential Schools and the Atlas Project, Sizer is a modest but brilliant administrator who is knowledgeable about education and thoughtful about what works in schools under varying circumstances. The coalition counteracts high schools'"intellectual shabbiness" and curricular superficiality by encouraging…

Disheartened by working at Children's Hospital and Juvenile Hall in Los Angeles, UCLA-trained Hunter became a school psychologist to concentrate on prevention, rather than remediation. Ultimately, she became a consultant aiming to move teaching from a craft to a profession based on research translated into artistic practice. (MLH)

Deborah Meier has founded three elementary schools, begun a secondary school, and influenced numerous other schools to create environments enabling kids to become powerful by learning to use their minds well. Her students have honed a set of skills allowing them to negotiate the system and seek out helpful adults. (MLH)

Formerly U.S. Commissioner of Education and Chancellor of State University of New York, Ernest Boyer is a renowned humanist. An avid Civil Rights advocate during the 1970s, Boyer believes knowledge should be channeled toward humane ends. As president of Carnegie Foundation for Advancement of Teaching, Boyer broadened the foundation agenda to…