Identify the most effective teaching approaches, techniques, and ideologies,

encourage innovations and their adaptation to specific circumstances,

assist the creation of a community of parents and teachers who support each other in improving schools.

The CSF is forming a Research and Best Practice Clearinghouse, a Parent Academy, and a Teacher Academy. Those organizations will contribute to the creation of model schools. Such model schools, according to the CSF, will stand for:

"equity and excellence,"

teaching of basic skills combined with creative problem-solving,

respect for individual values as well as diversity,

preparation for democracy as well as a world economy.

TECHNOLOGY IS KEY

Whatever the configuration of a school of the future might be, technology is always a huge part of it. Ginger Howenic, a consultant and director for The Classroom of the Future Foundation, recently made a presentation in the Lake Washington (Washington) School District. She was joined by Robert Clarke, executive director of the National School Co. Both emphasized technology.

Howenic formerly headed Clear View Elementary School, a charter school, in Chula Vista, California. At the presentation, she played a video from the school in which two boys studied bee anatomy with the help of an electron microscope and two professors. At the school, Hovenic says, kindergarten students use spreadsheets to track their height and weight through sixth grade.

Clarke's company offers SONY Web TV packages to school districts for $207 per unit. The packages provide Internet access through regular televisions, assisting students whose families do not own computers.

The school days when computers meant word processing or playing games are already behind us. Yet no matter how great a part computers and other technologies play in the school of the future, it is only a means, advocates of technology say, to the greater end of enabling students to learn through interaction with various aspects of life.

The Interview: Principals Share 30 Favorite Questions For Future Teachers

So what kinds of questions are principals preparing? Interview questions cover a wide range of topics. "I'm looking for many things when I hire a teacher," said Patricia Green, principal at Cedar Heights Junior High School in Port Orchard, Washington. "I seek a candidate who can truly communicate with students, parents, peers, and our community. I'm looking for someone who understands human growth and development, knows how to respond in age-appropriate ways to students, and realizes that the behaviors we teach our students are oftentimes equally as important as the subjects they learn.

"I also seek someone who has chosen teaching as a passion rather than as a job; if I find people who truly love teaching, then I know I have found folks who see each day as an opportunity to help others learn and grow instead of people who think about coming to 'work.'

"Finally, I seek team players who are able to relate their subject areas to the world around them in order to help students understand the why's behind the what's they are learning."

Some people believe teachers are born. But most principals think it takes more than that. Even the best teachers are always searching for ways to improve themselves, they say. In an interview setting, principals are often looking for candidates who recognize that they have a long way to go to become the teacher they want to be. In order to discern a new teacher's attitude toward professional development, principals pose questions such as...

What would your previous employer or college advisor say were your greatest strengths for teaching, and what areas would they suggest were areas that need growth? And do you agree with those assessments?

That's a question principal Teri Stokes often asks. "The question helps me gauge the applicant's understanding of where they are in the developmental process to becoming a great teacher," explained Stokes. "Then I always ask what plan the applicant has to grow in those areas. I want to see if they plan to do some reading, attend workshops, observe a specific teacher who has fine-tuned those needed skills"

Principal Larry Davis also asks candidates to focus on areas in greatest need for professional development. "This lets me know where weaknesses may be without being negative or making the candidate feel uncomfortable," said Davis, principal at Doctors Inlet Elementary School in Middleburg, Florida.

Brian Hazeltine, principal at Airdrie Koininia Christian School in Airdrie, Alberta (Canada), asks a similar question. "I want to see how honest the candidate is about his or her skills and how self-aware they are."