We must show the developing countries of the world that we have not only a workable form of government, but a sustained faith in the democratic creed; a faith that can meet and conquer the challenges to democracy. (Author)

A reform initiative's demise is often due not to its ineffectiveness, but to its inability to deliver immediate results. Beginning with a clear vision, educators move through a "ready, fire, aim" sequence that creates "products" along the way. Charting progress can help maintain everyone's faith by distinguishing between long-term and immediate…

Efforts to replace teachers with technology have uniformly failed. Machines are only tools. Good classroom tools extend the teacher's power to create a rich learning environment. If the teacher perceives the tool as master or misconstrues its use, its potential will never be realized. Strategies for computer use must focus on purpose and derive…

Urges educators to make education transformative as well as transmissive by suggesting education should work toward making man have the faith and power to direct his future. Asks educators to prophecy urgently, magnetically, and then fulfill those prophecies. (Author/DN)

An examination of the origins and significance of the 15 years of surveys reveals enduring public faith in education, a need for an informed public, and considerable stability in public attitudes. Two tables identify public estimations of biggest school problems and attitudes toward change and innovation. (PB)

Presents four versions of American educational history highlighting centralization/decentralization issues, American faith in schooling, and cascading national and international changes requiring extraordinary reforms. These diverse stories all arrive at the same conclusion--a need for national goals and performance standards to guide…

Educators are reluctant to report child abuse and neglect because they are not sure how abuse and neglect are defined, they are inadequately informed about the reporting process, and they fear prosecution. Most states make failure to report illegal, and courts tend to support educators making reports in good faith. (PGD)

When mayors take over education systems (as in Chicago, Boston, and Cleveland), school boards are big losers, and problems may persist. Mayoral takeovers happen for various reasons: bureaucratic dysfunction, diminishing faith in existing government structures, new demands on city governments, and perceived need for mayoral involvement. (Contains…

Policymakers are placing tremendous faith in assessment, a technology with many limitations. Assessment-driven improvement policy uses mandatory testing to leverage desired change, but it narrows the curriculum, punishes teachers for things beyond their control, expands bureaucracy, and does not work. Alternative strategies for school leaders are…

Principal theme in world history should be universality of basic human experience. This approach values differing forms of human expression without associating abstract concepts (such as faith, reason, or creativity) to one specific period of history in one particular part of the world. Scholarship should remain the highest priority, and past…

Civic education began wandering in the curricular wilderness in the 1960s, when Vietnam and then Watergate brought disenchantment, rebellion, experimentation, a loss of faith in traditional institutions and traditional leaders, the breakup of consensus, the weakening of the core culture and ultimately the erosion of curricular requirements in…