The National PTA, which helped plan and conduct many Phi Delta Kappan public education forums, believes that parent and community involvement, competent and caring educators, and adequate funding are key components of educational excellence. As parents discuss these vital components with other community members, they can jointly develop awareness,…

The Phi Delta Kappan educational forum in Chicago provided a viable means of soliciting community input and enabling stakeholders to enhance their understanding of public schools' purpose, identify measures to assess the current system's effectiveness, and recommend necessary changes. Forum participants heard statements from state and Chicago…

For educators' summer reading enjoyment, "Kappan" editors recommend three books on nature (Robert Richardson's biography "Emerson: The Mind on Fire, William Cronin's edited book "Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature," and Gary Snyder's poetry volume "Mountain and Rivers Without End"). Also recommended are three culturally diverse…

Educators should probably refrain from sending their manuscripts to the most prestigious, best-known journals, while ignoring the less widely circulated journals. This practice limits one's potential target audiences. Writers can avoid other potential pitfalls surrounding journals' acceptance rates, refereed status, research-reporting format,…

To circumvent typical public schooling restrictions, an upstate New York middle school established a Lab School that functions outside the regular program. Lab School aims to provide practice in intellectual inquiry, delve into complex, demanding topics, create an interdisciplinary, problem-oriented curriculum, and experiment with assessment…

Through an Essex High School/University of Vermont partnership, students can complete all 33 credits of the teacher licensing program within high school walls. Each three-credit course includes theory-focused class meetings and action-focused practica that inspire students to develop and conduct action-research projects. As a roving education…

Combining the Copernican Plan (a block-schedule variation) and year-round schooling may make both proposals more palatable to the general public. Since the plan leaves facilities, teacher contracts, and current budgets virtually unchanged, serious public resistance is unlikely. Principals should first introduce Copernican scheduling and then use…

A harried school counselor describes a tangled web of domestic discord and agency miscoordination (complicated by an unintelligible restraining order and a birth certificate mix-up) that try his patience and leave a young girl bereft of family. Dakota Stages's gutsiness and resiliency impress this counselor immensely. (MLH)

Continues the discussion about the Third International Mathematics and Science Study results. American eighth-grade students are on a par with science students in New Zealand, China, Iceland, and Bulgaria. Meanwhile, one researcher found that all of the top six countries in TIMSS math had centralized curricula. None relies heavily on tests. (MLH)

Amidst two decades of social neglect, America's white majority has "gifted" inner cities with a new, improved, racially biased criminal justice system. Given the racial patterns firmly fixed in American criminal justice policy and practice, the majority feels justified in undoing welfare and institutionalizing a substantial percentage of black…

Because many school funding studies are seriously flawed, valid conclusions cannot be reached concerning the effects of school funding in the United States. New evidence from the National Assessment of Educational Progress and two international achievement tests shows that differences among U.S. public school districts (and states) in funding and…

The videotape portion of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), which captured "typical" mathematics instruction in Germany, the United States, and Japan, disclosed information about types of mathematics students encountered, teachers' role in developing concepts and lessons, and expectations for students. The Japanese…

An innovation-focused Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) study of 13 nations participating in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) found universal unhappiness with the state of mathematics and science education. There was no link among successful test scores, improvement goals, or satisfaction of…

In collaboration with the U.S. Department of Education, federal legislators, the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory, the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), and local businesses and community members, a consortium of 20 suburban Chicago school districts formed learning networks to master Goal 5 of the Goals 2000…

Distinguishes among three kinds of standards: content, performance, and opportunity-to-learn. The standards concept has not been analyzed carefully enough to warrant establishing national standards, which could have undesirable consequences and require a different governmental role. Many adults willingly prescribe high learning standards but are…