Describes a walkabout program that a sixth-grade teacher developed for her students from several models designed for older students. The program's basic structure revolves around five areas of personal development: adventure, creative expression, local inquiry, practical skills, and service. This voluntary program's success hinges on developing…

Introduces articles in the special "Kappan" section drawing primarily on data from an ongoing longitudinal study (the Illinois Middle Grades Network), Indiana's middle Grades Improvement Program, the national Middle Grade School State Policy Initiative, and Michigan's Middle Start Initiative. Each project used Robert Felner's Middle Grades…

Describes the evolution of the University of Illinois' collaborative Project on High Performance Learning Communities, established in 1989 in response to policymakers' and practitioners' need for a more fully developed, practical knowledge base on educational reform. The university/research partners' role is to synthesize the most current,…

For six years, the Project on High Performance Learning Communities, in partnership with the Illinois Middle Grades Network, has been studying a network of 97 schools as they undergo restructuring based on the Carnegie Council's "Turning Points" visions. Preliminary findings show that high-quality, well-implemented reforms can contribute…

High performing schools for young adolescents are developmentally responsive, academically excellent, and socially equitable. Necessary reform elements include professional development, technical assistance, coordination, networks, data-driven decision making, enlightened leadership, improved teacher preparation, a well-informed public, and…

It would be hard to squeeze over 1,750 books on middle-level school reform onto a five-foot bookcase! With 22 experts' assistance, a manageable, three-part annotated bibliography of 80 books, reports, and journal articles covering core research areas, state reports, and critical reading was assembled. Samuel Totten's own bibliography (in section…

Profiles James Comer's success at directing the Yale Child Study Center and implementing the School Development Project in predominantly black, low-income school districts. Today, a training program called the Comer Project for Change in Education is operating in more than 600 schools in 82 districts and 26 states. Comer's proudest achievement is…

Educators' ability to tap the potential of available knowledge will determine the success or failure of school-improvement efforts. The average school employee is unacquainted with methods, strategies, and structures that could revolutionize the quality of education and school life. The current system is information-poor and cannot promote change…

A study of "excellent" teachers in four districts found that high school classes with higher achieving students had better instructional support and that teachers deemed excellent were not necessarily practicing state-of-the-art techniques. Correlates of effective teaching were subject-matter confidence, high-quality explanations, attention to…

Thanks to "HIRE Education," a project of Delaware's Business, Industry, and Education Alliance, employers may legally obtain high school attendance and performance information when evaluating job applicants. This may help motivate noncollege-bound students to work harder in class, improve their attendance, get along with peers, and become involved…

Faced with increased responsibilities, little social status, modest salaries, and leaner materials budgets, teachers contribute significant amounts of their own money (perhaps $1 billion yearly) for instructional purposes. A southern Minnesota study found that a typical teacher spent about $492 yearly to enrich students' learning experience. Such…

A former English teacher who lectures part-time at several colleges (with miserable pay and no benefits, seniority, or security) was determined to free herself from teaching. In recovery, she has plunged into lucrative business writing and editing, has weaned herself from faculty meetings and "excessive" caring, and is now a high-paid corporate…

During the 1930s, a worldwide depression created a fear of communism and a "law-and-order" mentality. The 1990s, by contrast, are marked by a social void in which guilt is ascribed to no one. As recent TV commercials show, dispensing reasonable consequences in response to negative actions is viewed as socially backward. Too often,…

During a (hypothetical) phone interview with a university researcher, an elementary principal reminisced about a lifetime of reading groups with unmemorable names, medium-paced math problems, patchworked social studies/science lessons, and totally "average" IQ and batting scores. The researcher hung up at the mention of bell-curved assembly lines…

Because the Reagan and Bush administrations accentuated the negative about American schools, there was little mention of U.S. students' average performance on the geography part of the 1992 Second International Assessment of Educational Progress. On the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (1994), U.S. eighth graders finished slightly…