Shows how three award-winning female physical-education teachers are using technology to facilitate both learning and meaningful assessment, in keeping with seven content standards promulgated by the National Association of Sport and Physical Education. These teachers are using videotaping, high- and low-tech self-measurement devices, heart…

A Maryland middle-school teacher can no longer imagine a math classroom without computers, word processing programs, graphing calculators, graphic design programs, and colored printers and monitors. Aided by these devices, her students made great leaps toward the 21st-century technology goals spelled out by the Department of Education in 1995.…

Assisted by a U.S. Department of Education Technology Innovation Challenge Grant, the Hudson (Massachusetts) Public Schools, the Concord Consortium Educational Technology Lab, and 30 collaborating high schools across the nation have developed a virtual high school over the Internet. Through Internet-based courses, Virtual High School significantly…

Describes a social-constructivist model of professional development arising from a collaboration between Southwest Texas State University's education department and New Braunfels (Texas) Independent School District. Teachers learn technology integration techniques from an instructionally strong "first-generation" of teachers trained at a…

Based on recent research and the author's site visits, this article describes six attributes characterizing an Information Age school: interactivity, self-initiated learning, a changing teacher role, media and technology specialists as central participants, continuous evaluation, and a discussion-centered classroom environment. Contact information…

Since 1993, an Israeli junior high school has been conducting a regional computer communications class with a special multimedia-based curriculum. Students express what they know via text, videos, pictures, sound, and animation and demonstrate their ability to apply knowledge in research and documentary projects. Although staff encountered some…

A New Zealand survey found that elementary and secondary teachers were concerned about four key technology management issues: planning, access, technical support, and professional development. Teachers recommended that principals have a clear, democratically constructed policy on the place of educational technologies in the school curriculum,…

A program developed by the Association for Curriculum and Supervision Development and Group Decisions Support Systems, Inc., aims to enhance accountability and improve school district/community communication. Scoreboards for Schools addresses inadequacies of current financial reporting systems by providing tightly linked planning strategies for…

For the past five years, Andover, Kansas middle-schoolers in an amateur radio club and class have sent and received Morse code messages, assembled and soldered circuit boards, designed and built antenna systems, and used computer programs to analyze radio communications problems. A successful bond issue financed a ham shack enabling students to…

The term "parental rights" has assumed a new, potentially disruptive meaning. Instead of working collaboratively to address their concerns and differences, some parents desire the right to use courts to sue schools to get their way. Colorado and Virginia parental rights legislation was recently defeated, but a federal bill affirming parents'…

Widespread "family abuse" by the child protective services industry and feelings of parental "disenfranchisement" have spawned the Parental Rights Movement and associated legislation. Legislation often focuses on formal recognition that parental rights are fundamental and should be protected from government interference; enforcement of due process…

The National Parent Teacher Association acknowledges parents' primary child-rearing role, but questions the need for legislation to extend parents' constitutional rights. Parents already have numerous rights and options for fighting "unreasonable" government interference. The laws that upset parental rights proponents are needed to protect some…

Students attending a Minnesota school in a middle-class neighborhood are finding that cooperation, conflict resolution, and civic values are creating a safe haven from the stresses of family and neighborhood life. Students have two innovative programs (Continuous Progress and Discovery) to choose from. Highlands Elementary nurtures its students…

A large Baltimore high school has shown how personalizing relationships and focusing the curriculum can turn around an unsafe school and create a climate conducive to learning. The school adopted the Talent Development model, which created six smaller units or academies. Instead of suspending or transferring ill-behaved students, Patterson…

In the 1993-94 National Center for Education Statistics survey of 50,000 teachers, secondary teachers consistently rated violence, vandalism, and verbal abuse as more severe in their schools than in elementary schools. Teachers at all levels were concerned about students' physical conflicts. Both levels have become increasingly violent, however,…