The School Improvement Through Instructional Process (SITIP) Program, initiated in Maryland in 1980, was concerned with improving classroom and school activities through the application of process-product research on classroom and school effectiveness. All 24 local education agencies voluntarily implemented one or more of four research-based…

Studies show Hispanics to have substantially higher rates of illiteracy than any other major population group in the United States. Illiteracy is one of a number of language problems for this population; other problems include limited oral English proficiency and native language illiteracy. Hispanics drop out of school in higher numbers and leave…

This manual provides guidelines for needs assessments based on training and development programs designed and used by business and industry. The guide defines needs and needs assessments and describes how to implement the process, using an eight-level needs assessment. Information is provided on stages of needs assessment, the process of assessing…

Four issues of the newsletter of the Hill Top Preparatory School (Rosemont, Pennsylvania) which provides secondary educational services to learning-disabled adolescents are presented. Issues typically have one or two major articles. Article titles and authors are as follows: "The Parents of Exceptional Children: What Helps Them Cope with…

The first of four major sections in this report presents an overview of the background and evolution of computer applications to learning and teaching. It begins with the early attempts toward "automated teaching" of the 1920s, and the "teaching machines" of B. F. Skinner of the 1940s through the 1960s. It then traces the…

The Federal Government has been funding state- and locally operated adult literacy programs for nearly 25 years. Unfortunately, despite the best intentions and efforts, the federal initiative in adult literacy has been minimal, inefficient, and ineffective. There has been no consistent federal policy guiding the growth of programs since 1965.…

Although several fundamental forces are changing the American economy and the American work force, three conditions are pivotal--demographic change, technological change coupled with shifting conditions of competition, and the continuing inadequacies of both public- and private-sector employment and training policies. The employment and training…

This summary of the development and implementation of the Study of Induction Programs for Beginning Teachers includes descriptions of the methods used to obtain data as well as recommendations and conclusions drawn from the study. Critical questions in the investigation were: (1) What are the problems of beginning teachers? (2) What kinds of…

The paper identifies important issues and trends to individualize education for gifted learners with educationally significant handicaps. Literature is reviewed in terms of five ways to understand modifying educational practice: (1) definitions (language used to order and organize knowledge and policies for service delivery) and designations…

In discussing the improvement of schools by using research and development findings, two different outcomes of a change program are considered. One is the effective implementation of new programs through use of available knowledge. The second is the broader issue of achieving school improvement through making the organization more healthy, the…

The eight papers in this book summarize discussions and recommendations by participants in a 1977 conference that focused on three topics: definitions of linking functions and roles; coordination of dissemination and linking activities; and support needs of linking agents, including options for providing support. Each of the chapters provides…

This monograph focuses on preretirement education and counseling programs as short-term events presented for the benefit of mature adults approaching retirement. The first section examines preretirement education from a historical perspective and includes a review of current programs. Forces affecting the future direction of preretirement…

This review examines 97 studies and evaluation reports of teacher inservice education and generalizes about the characteristics of successful programs. The studies were classified into 14 categories, seven of which represent pairs of conflicting values about how inservice education should be structured. These categories classed activities…

This paper surveys the recent literature on the implementation of educational innovations and reviews and synthesizes research findings and recommendations for improving educational practices. It focuses on the implementation processes, influences, and effects that are considered to be important variables in educational change, and explores…

Consituting the first full treatment of computers in reading, this volume focuses on recent developments in computer assisted instruction and its classroom implications. The eight chapters provide information on the following topics: the development of digital computers and of programs for using them for educational purposes, college centers…