This document is geared for parents who have a child receiving special education services. Parents of children receiving special education services are more than likely very involved in their child's education - including planning, reviewing, and assessing their child's education program. Over time, parents will learn a lot about the special…

This book shows how the results of needs assessments can be transformed into action plans for an organization and discusses the procedures for facilitating that change. The book also contains a detailed glossary of needs assessment terms. The chapters are: (1) "The Need"; (2) "The Three Phases of Needs Assessment: A Closer Look"; (3) "Data-Related…

This guide to solving problems and managing dilemmas is practitioner-driven. The concepts, language, examples, and cases are crafted to appeal to teachers and administrators interested in improving how they solve problems and manage dilemmas in classrooms, schools, and districts. Part 1 of the book lays out the author's approach to framing…

Suggests a system for classifying problems to help educators identify their problems and understand their complexity. Presents the Problem-Identification Matrix, which helps clarify the cause-and-effect relationship that exists in any problematic situation. (WD)

Argues that incrementalism's weakness is that it is another rational approach to problem solving when what is needed is a nonrational approach--creativity. Offers guidelines for improving creativity in oneself and in the work environment. (IRT)

Discussion of the role of small group performance focuses on solving problems to improve performance. Types of tasks and their effects on groups are described; group resources are discussed; factors affecting group process are explained; and a flowchart for solving group performance problems is presented. (LRW)

Description of expert system development focuses on identifying the problem, or knowledge, domain, and discusses three methods for defining the domain: (1) brainstorming, (2) concept analysis, and (3) information processing analysis, which describes cognitive processes. The techniques are illustrated by a description of an auto manfacturer's sales…

In a single evening workshop for school board members, teams of participants are given the facts of a situation previously confronted by a real school board and challenged to come up with a solution. After discussion, the real-life solution is revealed and compared to plans developed by the teams. (MLF)

Positive teacher interaction can facilitate collaboration in schools. Teacher groups led by facilitators can work to solve problems as they arise. Problem solving can involve at-risk students, new students, new teachers, and school problems. Facilitators design group activities to provide maximum positive interaction. The activities promote…

Students struggling with mathematics may benefit from early interventions aimed at improving their mathematics ability and ultimately preventing subsequent failure. This guide provides eight specific recommendations intended to help teachers, principals, and school administrators use Response to Intervention (RtI) to identify students who need…

The primary purpose of this volume is to awaken a realization on the part of helping professionals that some people have real-life emotional and psychological distress that cannot be defined or treated, like traditional psychopathological problems. Professionals must identify real-life problems that must be treated if the person is to live…

Outlines the Mt Diablo High School (CA) conflict resolution program that has become a model program. In its first two years it has been responsible for a 67 percent reduction in the number of student conflicts. (MD)

Discusses a system developed to combine collaborative bargaining and adversarial bargaining called dual collective bargaining. Includes a step-by-step discussion of the groundrules under which this system operates. (MD)

The article is designed to help parents and teachers understand the nature and causes of underachievement and to show them how to work more effectively with underachieving gifted students. Guidelines focus on ways to share problem solving. (Author/CL)

A possible method of derivation of prescriptions for solving problems, found in Babylonian cuneiform texts, is presented. It is a kind of "geometric algebra" based mainly on one figure and the manipulation of or within various areas and segments. (MNS)