The Minnesota New Country School's award-winning project-based model is capturing the attention of administrators and educators across the country. This book explains the theory and practice behind making a project-based system work. It covers learning theory, the role of teachers in such a system, what a school building and school day would look like, examples of student projects and how they are assessed, and a chapter on steps to take to create a school of this nature. Educators, parents, and students who feel oppressed by the system or are not satisfied with their present situation;...

Here, authors Ronald Newell and Irving Buchen continue the dialogue begun by Roland Barth, Linda Lambert, Carl Glickman and others pertaining to democratic, teacher-led schools. Teachers are capable of managing schools, without designated principals and/or superintendents. A number of practitioners have taken up the gauntlet and have created collaborative cultures in order to fulfill the need for creating teacher-controlled environments. These environments are necessary to carry out the as-of-yet unfulfilled reform of practices that benefit students at the most elemental level of...

Since the 1960s, efforts to reform education--including various curricular changes, reading approaches, teacher preparation, money for the disadvantaged, and different instructional approaches--have failed to bring about true systemic change because the reforms fail to deal with a different definition of learning. The Hope Study was created to discover whether a radically different learning environment would achieve different outcomes. In detailing the outcome of the Hope Study, Assessing What Really Matters in Schools gives hope to innovative and progressive schools, to new and different...

Since the 1960s, efforts to reform education--including various curricular changes, reading approaches, teacher preparation, money for the disadvantaged, and different instructional approaches--have failed to bring about true systemic change because the reforms fail to deal with a different definition of learning. The Hope Study was created to discover whether a radically different learning environment would achieve different outcomes. In detailing the outcome of the Hope Study, Assessing What Really Matters in Schools gives hope to innovative and progressive schools, to new and different...