As the profiles of four mentally handicapped teenagers show, students with severe disabilities can benefit from being included in subject-area classes. To facilitate inclusion, teachers can allow peers to facilitate learning, prime students to be successful participants, give students valued roles, utilize existing expertise, and adapt the…

Successful classroom teachers have the skills to teach students with disabilities. Teachers should consult with colleagues and specialists; welcome disabled students; accept full teaching responsibility; facilitate students' belonging; clarify expectations with team members; adapt activities and arrangements; provide active, participatory learning…

Describes a creative approach to including Nora, a student with cerebral palsy, in an outdoor adventure--a hilly, seven-mile trek through Eastern Oregon's Ponderosa pine forests. With teachers' and classmates' help, Nora practiced on a simulated horse and saddle, overcame her fear of heights, and eagerly joined classmates on horseback. (MLH)

The current challenge for educators in inclusive settings is changing the curriculum to meet students' needs. This article describes a four-step curriculum-centered collaboration process involving regular- and special-education teachers. During the orientation phase, teachers establish rapport and set expectations for their collaboration. They…

Too often, gifted programs offer standard, all-purpose enrichment without regard to special talents. Talents are not usually fully developed in youngsters. Teachers can help develop children's talent by becoming talent scouts, structuring appropriate learning activities, praising talented behavior, helping kids set learning goals, locating helpful…

Service learning benefits students of all academic abilities, particularly the gifted. Teachers should use the principles of good service, make service a requirement, encourage service experiences based on real needs, design interdisciplinary service courses, consider opportunities for social change, provide mentorships, reduce liability, and help…

Tennessee's Project STAR (Student Teacher Achievement Ratio) randomly assigned 7,000 K-3 students to small classes (13-17 pupils), regular classes (22-26 pupils), and regular-with-aide classes. Small classes ameliorate large schools' effects, reduce grade retention and discipline problems, benefit minority students substantially, allow students…

In a November 1995 "Educational Leadership" article, Eric Hanushek claimed that neither educational spending nor class size affects student achievement. A rigorous reanalysis of the evidence, including Hanushek's own data, shows that resources matter. While increased spending will not automatically produce increased achievement, adequate funds are…

Site-based management tries to transform schools into communities where the appropriate people participate constructively in major decisions affecting them. Effective site councils have a well-designed community structure, enabling leadership, student and adult learning focus, and a schoolwide perspective. Districts should provide long-term…

Specific problems (involving power, implementation, mission, time management, expertise, cultural constraints, avoidance, and motivation) are keeping school-based decision making from improving teaching and learning. Educators must begin with a clear mission, set explicit goals for the decision-making process, alter governance structures to…

Site-based management is especially relevant for large, complex, and bureaucratic city districts. A recent study of six urban midwestern schools shows that effective SBM schools fully involve parents, challenge current principal/teacher relationships, eliminate destructive district/school relationships, build a trusting climate, create meaningful…

Kentucky's school-based decision-making councils now function in 66% of the state's schools. Since 1991-92, these schools have learned that their councils must represent their local constituencies, gain the support of local political structures, shun legalism, concentrate on substantive education issues, and develop a democratically based…

In 1992 and 1993, the Boston Public Schools and Boston Teachers' Union contracts established school-based management as a schoolwide policy. Now Boston's school-site councils are focusing on varied educational improvement issues, including educational missions, effective teaching strategies, genuine parent involvement, a student-centered…

Site-management designs generally fail to establish structures and processes that help school communities work through cultural change. The Comer School Development Program succeeds because it supports a change in school culture and focuses on children's development, not just their speech, language, and intellectual capabilities. Lessons from…

Since 1991, a formerly rundown Baltimore middle school's reform efforts have been propelled by visionary administrative leadership; a collegial team of empowered teachers; a responsive, teacher-designed curriculum and instructional model; nongraded, schools-within-a school, interdisciplinary team-teaching; and productive school-business…