As the intense national debate continues in the United States over exactly what schools should accomplish and how this can be achieved, grassroots efforts have created imaginative new options in terms of programs, schools and policies. They reflect considerable thought on the part of individuals with regard to types of schools children might attend, the use of technology, the nature of the classroom itself. What follow are some examples of the ferment of activity that is underway across the United States.

A "Seamless" Bridge to Higher Education

Greenville Technical Charter High School (GTCHS), located on the campus of Greenville Technical College in South Carolina, was the nation's 30th "middle college" secondary school when it opened in the fall of 1999. According to principal David Church, the charter school provides a new vision of secondary education as it seeks to expand technical education by offering a "seamless" bridge from high school to college. He points out that the relationship between the community college and GTCHS allows resource sharing -- giving the students access to Greenville Technical College's labs and state-of-the-art equipment. By working with local business and industry, the charter school has been able to tailor its programs to reflect what companies are looking for in employees. While still in high school the students can take, and get credit for, courses at the community college. Church expects to have over 150 students taking college-level courses in the near future.

Museum School Offers Real-World Experience

Picture a public school where students have access to the resources of a fine museum and science center. Such is the case at the Henry Ford Academy of Manufacturing Arts & Sciences, a charter public high school located on the premises of the Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan. The popular four-year school was founded by the Ford Motor Company and the museum in 1997, and chartered by Wayne County. Students are selected through a simple countywide lottery -- which has resulted in a diverse student body. The curriculum, developed in consultation with experts on national and state curriculum standards, including standards for advanced manufacturing education, is geared to help students see real-world applications for their studies, with students using the museum for analysis, inspiration, and association. The school's goals focus on providing educational experiences that prepare adolescents for a world in which they are constantly learning and applying new knowledge, skills and attitudes.

The For-Profit School Movement Takes Hold

Wintergreen Interdistrict Magnet School in Hamden, Connecticut, a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school run by Edison Schools Inc., is a for-profit institution that boasts an exuberant following among its students, parents and teachers. Today there are more than 1,000 students on Wintergreen's waiting list. Like other Edison schools, Wintergreen focuses on instilling pride and discipline in their students -- and providing students with computers and more instruction than the typical public school. At present, there are only about 250 for-profit public schools in the United States. They are catching on fast, but face daunting challenges as they attempt to make a profit operating schools for local school boards or independent chartering organizations, using the same public funds routinely allotted for public schools. Edison's founder and CEO, Chris Whittle, is staking his company's future on its ability to slash administrative costs while delivering top-quality schooling.

Magnet School Concept Proves A Winner in Science

Six Montgomery Blair High School (Silver Spring, Maryland) seniors were recently among the 40 finalists in the United States' prestigious nationwide Intel Science Talent Search -- a remarkable academic achievement for the Montgomery County math and science magnet school that was created in 1985 to promote desegregation. The suburban Washington school has sent more than 1,000 graduates on to the nation's top universities. Admission is based on tests that evaluate mathematical reasoning, verbal reasoning and critical thinking, along with a motivational statement from the applicant. Competition is keen: For the 1999 school year there were over 800 applicants, but only 100 openings.

New York City's Liberty Meets Immigrants' Language and Literacy Needs

Immigrant youth who have had limited opportunities for education and literacy in their native countries face great challenges as they take their places in U.S. schools, and sometimes "English as a Second Language" programs are not enough to bridge the gap. New York City's Liberty High School's goal is to help these students. It is a school limited to the ninth grade, which normally includes students ages 14 or 15. Nearly two-thirds of Liberty's students are 17 or older and a fifth are 19 or older. One class, for example, includes students from Panama, Haiti, Yemen, China, Vietnam and Sierra Leone. Liberty offers three literacy programs -- in English, Spanish and Chinese. The final phase of the program focuses on preparing the teenagers for the transition to regular high school -- to be able to have as much chance for success as any of their peers.

Ninth-Graders Boast: A School Just For Us

In some school districts ninth-graders are part of the high school, in others part of the middle school -- but in Alexandria, Virginia, ninth-graders have a school of their own. In 1993, faced with overcrowding in its schools, the Alexandria school system embarked on a bold new experiment, converting an administrative building into a colorful, welcoming center for its ninth-grade students. To the surprise of many, the Minnie Howard School has been a resounding success -- and parents and teachers give its principal, Margaret May Walsh, much of the credit. Named Virginia's principal of the year by the National Association of Secondary School Principals in 1998, Walsh provides strong leadership and an understanding and empathy for her students. Students are divided into six teams, and are encouraged to think of themselves as part of the local secondary school, where they will attend the 10th through 12th grades. Students report that they are truly learning to advocate for themselves -- a skill that will serve them well as they move on to high school. The percentage of students taking honors classes has increased from 20 to 35 percent, says Walsh, and she wants it to go higher.

Middle-School Clusters Bring Students Closer

While segmenting a school into smaller units -- often called clusters -- is not the traditional way of organizing middle schools, the school-within-a-school design can provide a gradual change as children move from the protected environment of a small elementary school to the much larger, more open environment of middle school. Creekland Middle School, the largest middle school in Georgia's Gwinnett County, with over 3,100 students, was designed using the school-within-a-school model so that its students would reap the benefits of a smaller school setting. The school is divided into five communities, each with its own assistant principal, school counselor and secretary. Interest in the model used at Creekland has grown in response to recent incidents of school violence in the United States -- with the hope that if students and teachers know each other well, problems can be detected before they turn into tragedy.

Home Schooling Outgrows the Home

In 1983, in Wichita, Kansas, about 50 families were educating their children at home, mostly for religious or other personal reasons. But today, with the legality of home schooling established by the U.S. courts in recent years, more and more traditional public school families are embracing home schooling. In 1998 there were more than 1,500 home school families in Wichita, and the city's home school movement had literally outgrown the home -- as students formed athletic teams, bands, a choir and a bowling group, as well as a number of group academic classes. As the home school movement expands, research shows most home-schooled children score well on standardized tests, are well adjusted and succeed in college.

Muslims Find Havens for Religious and Cultural Identity

In early days in colonial America, religious movements who came to the continent seeking freedom from religious oppression established schools for their members. Religious schools continue to flourish nearly four centuries later. For example, besides the Christian and Jewish institutions that have been in existence for a century or more, the number of full-time Islamic schools operating in the United States has grown, over the past decade, from 49 to around 200, most of them covering grades kindergarten through eighth. These days, Detroit, Michigan, which has had a sizable Muslim population since the 1920's, boasts nine full-time private Islamic schools. Among them are the Al-Ikhlas Training Academy, a 190-student pre-K-12 school founded by African-American Muslims in 1991; and the Crescent Academy, a 150-student pre-K-8 school founded the same year, whose students are largely American-born children of highly educated immigrants from the Middle East and South Asia. Although the financial resources of the schools vary greatly, each teaches a basic curriculum recommended by the state in addition to courses in Islamic studies and Arabic.

Rural School Succeeds by Adopting Tough Standards and Accountability

Pleasant Grove Elementary, a public one-school district in a rural area near Sacramento, California, was struggling with declining enrollments about six years ago. At that time the school board hired Jeff Holland, a principal who aggressively pursued the state's emphasis on tough standards and accountability. By taking the lead on standards-based instruction, Pleasant Grove has attained some of the highest test scores in the region. Today each grade follows an explicit set of standards that say exactly what students are expected to learn in each subject. Teachers receive extensive training in standards-based instruction. Due to its success with standards and its small nurturing environment, more and more parents are transferring their children to Pleasant Grove. For the first time ever, the school has a waiting list.

Internet Schools Add New Dimensions to Home Schooling

As home schooled students become older and their needs become more varied, parents have been turning to a new breed of online courses to augment home schooling. These online schools are allowing parents to provide standardized, accredited education to their children while they remain in their own homes. "This is one of the new ways to do your home schooling, where parents aren't the sole teachers," says Janet Hale, who founded the private Willoway Cyber School in 1994. Willoway's 24 students take a full curriculum over the Internet for $2,250 per year. Online schools can also provide benefits for children with special needs who may find traditional schools difficult to navigate.

Turning a New Page in Online Education

The Daniel Jenkins Academy, a groundbreaking public school in Polk County, Florida, will have as many students as it can accept when it opens its doors in the fall of 2000. Students will register for online classes through the state's Florida High School, which will act as a subcontractor to the new school and provide all academic courses and online teachers. Jenkins will have no classroom teachers. Instead, in-school facilitators, counselors, resource teachers and a technical team will guide students through the curriculum. Full-time online teachers in homes throughout Florida will provide instruction, assignments and grades. USA Today plans to monitor the school closely and report on its progress in a series of articles.

Teaching Elementary Students Life Skills

More than a quarter-century ago, as an outgrowth of some experiences while teaching in public schools, Jon Oliver conceived a program to instruct young students -- in primary grades -- about controlling their anger and possibly violent impulses. He posited that by learning self-control early on, children might deal more effectively with these angry impulses as teens or adults. The program, Skills for Life, became part of the nonprofit Boston-based Lesson One Foundation he established, which now serves elementary schools across the United States. It is particularly apt at a time when concerns over safety in U.S. schools are widely discussed. The program teaches young children how to integrate the skills of self-control, self-confidence, responsibility and consequences, thinking and problem solving, and cooperation into their lives.

Teaching Teachers to Master Technology

Marlboro College, a small school in southern Vermont, opened a new graduate center in 1998 that offers teachers a Master of Arts degree in "teaching with Internet technologies." The program, which allows students to do much of the work online, is intended to help teachers navigate the rapidly changing world of cyberspace so they can effectively bring this knowledge into the schools -- making teachers the masters of technology and giving them the tools to effectively integrate technology into the classroom. Some see programs like Marlboro's as the answer to the "white-coat syndrome" common in schools today -- where there is only one specialist assigned to integrate technology into the entire institution, not nearly enough to meet the demand.

Parents as Partners Make a Difference in Inner-City Schools

East Cleveland, Ohio, is a predominately black community in which the majority of students come from single-parent homes, and almost half live below the poverty line. Between the fall of 1993 and the fall of 1996, the public schools of East Cleveland and Cleveland State University piloted a project called FAST (Families are Students and Teachers). As students retained the same teachers for three years, parents monitored the class assignments; engaged in summer enrichment programs with their children; and took part in monthly workshops to teach parents how to reinforce instruction at home, to develop a home environment that facilitates achievement, and to enhance their basic parenting skills. The early results of the program have been impressive, with students participating in the program showing considerable achievement in reading, language and mathematics.