Formerly National Education Association president, Mary Futrell got NEA to support the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and helped shift NEA's focus to professional development and human-rights issues. She believes teachers must help state and district entities set academic and professional-development standards. (MLH)

Gilligan's work at Harvard University has centered about the study of female thinking and moral decision making. She and her colleagues tried to repair the omission of girls' voices from the psychological literature. She is currently studying boys' narrowed self-expression and wants schools to amplify children's voices. (MLH)

Recommends leisurely reading for teachers: biographies on St. Augustine and Charles Lindbergh; novels by Edwidge Danticat, Kate Chopin, and Velma Allis; Edward Tufte's three volumes on the visual presentation of information; Jean Vanier's "Becoming Human;" the Harry Potter series, and Michael Tolkin's novel "The Player." (MLH)

From a shaky start as a 12-year-old Cuban refugee, Manuel Justiz eventually became dean of the College of Education at the University of Texas, Austin. An "educational maverick," Justiz insists on working closely with the Texas business community, local schools, the governor's business council, and various UT colleges. (MLH)

Award-winning science author and Harvard professor Stephen Jay Gould shares some views on education and contemporary American culture. Gould's most enthusiastic school memory is singing in an all-city chorus. Harvard students are bright and motivated but have no shared culture, historical perspective, or foreign language proficiency. Gould favors…

Although Virginia's Governor Lowell Weicker comes from a privileged background, he has drawn himself close to the people. A liberal Republican with some strong conservative values, Weicker believes privilege means sacrifice in terms of time commitment and tax effort. Weicker has spearheaded legislation to benefit learning-disabled and economically…

The notion that there is no template or model for American schools--just guiding principals and a deep respect for individual school culture--informs the work of the Coalition of Essential Schools and the Annenberg Institute founded by Ted Sizer. Today the Coalition is supporting clusters of small schools to help make school choice more…

Since 1988, the Jose Valdes Summer Math Institutes have helped some 4,800 (mostly minority) students get a running start on their high school careers. The program consists of four main elements: intensive math instruction for students, training for teachers, parent education, and a student support program. (MLH)

Describes the origins of alternative schools within U. S. public school systems and the reasons for their rapid proliferation. (Author/WD)

Juxtaposes a series of quotations from Hitler's "Mein Kampf" on such educational topics as the study of history as politics, the learning of history, and multilingualism. (JBM)

Recounts the inception, philosophy, and successes of Cleveland Ohio's Major Work Program, a course of study founded in 1922 for gifted students. (JW)

Conant's "The American High School Today" (1959) conveyed his confidence in consolidation of smaller schools into comprehensive high schools. The book sparked criticism. Conant's personal papers reveal that his breezy optimism hid doubts, frustrations, and uncertainties. The contradiction in his views foreshadows the turbulent 1960s. (PB)

Details the most important curriculum movements--which can be generally classified under the two headings of subject-centered curriculum and student-centered curriculum--their adherents, and their rationales. (Author/WD)

Traces the history of federal goals and policies in education from the expansion of federal aid under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to the reduction of federal support and regulation currently envisaged in the Education Improvement and Consolidation Act of 1981. (RW)

Reviews the history of reform movements in secondary education in the context of the overall development of secondary education since the 19th century. Suggests treating reports advocating reform as position papers helping make broad social changes intelligible by revealing the shifting relationships between changing concepts of education and…