In one Texas school district, a few elementary and secondary teachers traded classes for one day to compare differences in working conditions. Teachers benefited by developing greater appreciation of their colleagues' efforts, making connections between secondary and elementary schools, gleaning new teaching ideas and methods, and gaining…

An education professor recounts her mother's profound influence on her life over the years. Her most important lesson was the sacredness of life. Teaching lost its status when education became secularized as a tool for economic mobility, when concerns for the spiritual became embarrassingly atavistic. (3 references) (MLH)

A teacher describes her choice of teaching as a gift, a desire to attend college and make her life bigger than her hometown. She stays in the profession because she enjoys helping children believe in themselves as readers and writers. (MLH)

A perusal of the national testing proposals discloses great variety as to testing purposes and methods, voluntariness testing age and grade, subject areas to be tested, responsible parties, and financing. Advantages and disadvantages of U.S. national testing proposals are discussed and contrasted with European approaches. (14 references) (MLH)

Professionals must teach and operate schools in the best interests of students, using their knowledge to guide their efforts. This article summarizes what educators know about teaching and learning, teachers and work conditions, and school improvement. Decentralization, deregulation, and empowerment will prevail only by creating "elite" or truly…

Educational restructuring differs from previous reform efforts in its focus on improved learning for all students and its long-term commitment to fundamental, systemic change. The critical elements required for successful restructuring are a sincere invitation to change, authority and flexibility, access to knowledge, and time to plan. (MLH)

To help teachers at one California high school evaluate tracking and other practices, the principal developed a six-step process involving studying, defining, and delimiting the prevailing practice; studying the practice's heritage; reviewing and then operationalizing the research and theory; brainstorming practice implications; and discussing and…

Over the past three years, the people of Arlington Heights worked together to define the learning outcomes essential for their students' success and redesign the curriculum to provide essential learning experiences. The principle of expanded opportunity led to restructuring the entire instructional support system, including grading and testing.…

As the staff and students of Littleton (Colorado) High School have found, talking about restructured educational programs is easier than implementing them. Participants redesigning graduation requirements encountered seven realities, namely the need for sacrifice, adequate funding, discussion time, outside perspectives, ways to dispel fear and…

Four years ago, a very small group of teachers at a Stockton, California, high school recognized that the school must make some dramatic changes in curriculum, governance, and educational philosophies. This article shares pitfalls and surprises encountered in teachers' struggle to create a climate for change and implement their new vision. (seven…

American education is stuck on well-intentioned, deeply traditional, but flawed ideas about teaching and learning. Failure to acknowledge a school's synergistic quality either paralyzes faculty or smothers changes already introduced. Pretending that serious restructuring can be done without honest confrontation is a cruel illusion. (MLH)

Through their involvement with the Coalition of Essential Schools, the two high school teachers profiled here reenergized their daily lives and motivated their students toward exciting learning gains. Both teachers changed their practices because their students were not responding as they had hoped. Students' roles have also changed, as they…

Motivated by American Federation of Teachers President Al Shanker, St. Paul, Minnesota, educators created a retooled, transformed school requiring all students to become responsible for their own learning. The result is a technology-rich, textbook-free environment that is also high-teach and high-touch and stresses close ties to business people…

The Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow (ACOT) project is a flexible consortium of researchers, educators, students, and parents who have worked collaboratively to create and study innovative learning environments since 1985. ACOT classrooms are true multimedia environments where students move from competitive work patterns toward collaborative ones. (10…

Discusses the need for developing accurate assessment methods and establishing a common standard for all students through a voluntary national examination system. School-based management programs and models of excellence will not affect the vast majority of schools. States and districts must make strategic moves and comprehensive policy changes…