One California high school is motivating at-risk students by giving them the opportunity to produce school publications. (Author/TE)

A personalized education, according to Ted Sizer, means that students are known by adult professionals in the school. Administrators at a California high school with 2,000 students and very large classes initiated an adopt-a-kid program by matching adult volunteers on campus with low-achieving students. This program, along with a successful block…

In "Making Connections--Teaching and the Human Brain," the authors outline a new learning theory based on current research in the neurosciences. This theory has been applied to several schools, including a Rio Linda, CA, elementary school serving economically disadvantaged children. Schools as apprentice communities allow children to…

Work-based learning is essential to career-related education models. Committed to developing work-related programs for all interested students, teachers in California health career academies have created a curriculum sequence meeting all University of California admission requirements while stressing practical work skills. They are also developing…

Charter schools are independent legal entities empowered to hire and fire, handle lawsuits, and control their own finances. Charter schools require new relationships with school boards, utilize site-based decision making, and foster new teacher roles. Minnesota, California, and Massachusetts are experimenting with charter schools. A sidebar…

Prospective charter schools in California must address educational design, outcomes, assessment methods, governance, staffing qualifications, health and safety procedures, racial balance, admission requirements, retirement benefits, employees' rights, financial audit procedures, expulsion and suspension procedures, and attendance alternatives.…

A survey shows that California's charter-schools movement is being shaped by the special features of the state's charter law--exclusive local oversight and ambiguous legal status. Each school must negotiate how it handles its local school board, teachers' unions, and lack of start-up funding and technical assistance. Most charter schools seek…

In an authentic learning setting, technology has the power to support students and teachers in obtaining, organizing, manipulating, and displaying information. According to an Office of Educational Research and Improvement case study, reformed classrooms begin with an authentic, challenging task; have all students practice advanced skills; and…

The desire for students to graduate with more than basic skills has fueled interest in performance assessment methods such as essay writing, group science experiments, or portfolio preparation. Officials in Vermont, California, Kentucky, Maryland, and other states are betting that performance assessments may prove as powerful a classroom influence…

A recent study compared hands-on scientific inquiry assessment to assessments involving lab notebooks, computer simulations, short-answer paper-and-pencil problems, and multiple-choice questions. Creating high quality performance assessments is a costly, time-consuming process requiring considerable scientific and technological know-how. Improved…

Cognitive coaching, a process allowing teachers to explore the thinking behind their practice, can reveal incompletely developed areas of individuals' cognitive mapping. Cognitive coaching uses a three-phase cycle (preconference, observation, and postconference) to help teachers improve instructional effectiveness by becoming more reflective about…

The new kinds of teaching required to implement curriculum reforms like the California Curriculum Frameworks are incompletely defined and impossible to learn in quick-fix workshops. Teachers need to have "instructional conversations" with students that engage their interest, focus on a definite subject, and encourage full participation…

An English teacher's impromptu unit on social problems gave students opportunity to develop writing skills while expanding concept of community. While gathering data on diminishing rain forests (chosen topic), discussing research in small groups or workshops, interviewing community members, sending letters to political representatives, plugging…

Describes a California high school English class's creation of various authentic learning activities to bring Dostoevsky's "Brothers Karamazov" to life. For any activity to be perceived as genuine, students must be able to apply what they are learning to their lives; there must be a goal worthy of students' and teachers' commitment and…

Since the U.S. has no strong centralized educational program, the drive for systemic change is proceeding more slowly and unsystematically than in Japan or France. Systemic reform strategies must emphasize building schools' capacity for self-renewal. Getting from uniformly high standards to diverse delivery systems is the challenge. Marshall…