Learning First Alliance, November 2001
The Learning First Alliance - which consists of a dozen establishment education groups - has identified "essential" elements of safe and supportive schools. Most will not surprise you: more money, smaller classes, greater parent and community involvement, and efforts to foster "positive behavior" through anger management and conflict resolution. You will also find encouragement of challenging curricula for all students and standards to "monitor their progress and support continuous improvement." The report offers more specific recommendations for school and districts, some (e.g. disaggregate and report student achievement data) more sensible than others (e.g. regulate teacher certification even more tightly). If you care to learn more, surf to http://www.learningfirst.org/pdfs/safe-schools-report.pdf or purchase a copy of the report (Stock No. 300303) for $3 plus shipping from Alliance member ASCD by calling 800-933-2273, ext. 2.
