Downloads & Free Reading Options - Results

As educators across the nation launch into frenzied efforts to "do something" in response to the various recommendations of commissions on educational excellence, many are forgetting that knowledge of how to implement change is available. This paper focuses on three concerns that educators must face when fitting general recommendations to specific school settings. First, the improvement to be sought must be defined. Educators should focus energy and commitment on one or two efforts to maximize impact, selecting those most pertinent to the school, most likely to be supported, and least likely to detract from other efforts already underway. Second, activities in support of the change process must be designed and conducted. Since change is a complex process involving initiation, implementation, and institutionalization of the new program or idea, and requires alterations in the behaviors of individuals and groups as well as in the materials they use, each step must be planned thoroughly. Third, the roles of the many participants in the change process must be specified. These participants include state and local policy makers and administrators, local facilitators, and building administrators. Relevant innovation implementation research is cited throughout the document. (PGD)

1Boy Crusoe

By Allan Eric

Also published as" A Yankee Crusoe" . A 15 year old hard working and studious farm boy finds the lure of adventure on the seas as a merchant seaman more than he can resist. This is his story. " I was born in a little town in the State of Maine, near the close of the Civil War. My boyhood life did not differ materially from that of the average farmer's son in the remote country districts of New England--except, perhaps, that I read more and thought more. Hard work on the rugged soil, two terms each year in the little yellow country schoolhouse, a day's fishing now and then filled the early years of my life full to over-flowing. " What he gets is enough excitement and adventure to overflow his wildest dreams. How he experiences disaster and uses his wits and knowledge to overcome every problem makes for a great read. - Summary by Phil Chenevert