Reviews the history of the passage of the Hatch Amendment. Defines the regulations and examines testimony given during congressional hearings. Discusses the implications of the amendment. (MD)

Describes a program, developed in a small Vermont elementary school, that centered on world hunger and global awareness by involving students in helping stop food waste during lunch. Community members and businesses pledged money as an incentive for stopping waste, and the money raised went to UNICEF. (MD)

Discusses the stereotyped concept of male roles in our society and posits a new vision of masculinity wherein boys would express a full range of behaviors and emotions, and maleness and femaleness would be equally valued. The change can begin with a rethinking of how masculinity is taught. (MD)

Commemorates Martin Luther King, Jr. on the first celebration of the national holiday and proposes teaching the ideals that Dr. King advocated. (MD)

A New York State high school has developed a unique Leadership Program in a class that teaches student leadership through participation in individual, school, and community projects. The program involves two phases: self-analysis and school improvement.(MD)

Presents the results from a 1984 national survey of high school community service programs. Findings include: 27 percent of high schools offer some kind of community service programs, enrollments vary greatly, females outnumber males, more than half of the programs have no hispanics, and 36 percent have no black students. Includes tables,…

Describes the Universal Curriculum, a program designed to prepare students to make constructive contributions to their communities and to actively pursue solutions to global problems. The program helps students deal with major issues confronting humankind and work on making the world a better place in which to live. (MD)

Describes an instructional rehabilitation program that targets hard-core male delinquents. Run by the Boys Clubs of Miami, in conjunction with the Circuit Court's Juvenile Division, the program presently serves 120 youngsters at a third of the cost of the state training schools. (MD)

Presents data from a survey of the effectiveness of middle school programs in 34 states. The data show that changing to middle school organization results in student achievement gains, decreased discipline problems, enhanced personal development among students, and other positive effects. (MD)

Presents information on textbook design and marketing practices, and their consequences for textbook content; recommends that selection committees firmly define the role of the textbook in curriculum, and adapt published materials to their school system's unique requirements. (MCG)

Discusses the applicability of research into cognitive schemas, metacognition, instructional design, and learning strategies to textbook creation; the value of well-structured, coherent, and focused texts; readability formulas, narrative characteristics, science and social studies texts, glossaries, dictionaries, teachers' manuals, and practice…

Readability formulas may detract from textbook quality. They overlook text and reader characteristics that affect comprehension. Moreover, average "readability levels" ignore wide variations within texts and between scales. The shortened sentences and simplified vocabulary used to conform texts to formulas sacrifice precision and connectedness,…

Criticizes the organization, emphases, scope, and intellectual challenges of basal social studies textbooks widely used in elementary schools. Includes recommendations for improving such textbooks and social studies curricula. (MCG)

Presents research on cognitive skills demanded by elementary and secondary school mathematics textbooks, based on an original 10-level classification of thinking activities; reports a general decline both in the amount of material demanding student involvement and in the percentage of that material requiring higher-order thinking. (MCG)

Instructional materials are mediocre and inflexible because (1) education agencies leave important decisions to materials producers; (2) students, parents, and teachers lack influence; and (3) schools depend excessively on such materials. Cites research supporting this view, and suggests broad criteria and actions to improve textbooks. (MCG)