In 1990, the Ontario Ministry of Education implemented the Transition Years project, an initiative for restructuring middle-grades education. This document presents quantitative findings of a study that identified variations in progress among pilot school sites, with a focus on the commitment-building process. Data were derived from: (1) two…

Much evidence indicates that raising the overall achievement level of an urban school requires parent participation in the school--participation beyond the traditional fundraising activities. This study identified program characteristics and district and school conditions that affect the implementation of parent-involvement programs. The first…

A qualitative study focused on the experiences of 20 teachers required to use portfolio assessment in a summer program for at-risk kindergarten and first-grade students. Three questions guided data collection: What types of information did the teachers aggregate?; What definition of literacy emerged from the acquired information?; and What guided…

Outcomes of the District Wide School Improvement Program (DWIP), a plan to improve Native education in Saskatchewan, are described in this paper. Initiated by the Prince Albert Tribal Council (PATC) and the Lac La Ronge Indian Band (LLRIB), the school improvement model is a community-based developmental model designed to sensitize schools to their…

The principal purpose of this article was to identify supervisory approaches available to instructional leaders in education. Selected supervisory approaches served as the basis for creating the Supervisory Options for Instructional Leaders (SOIL) Model. Instructional leaders in a variety of educational settings could use this model. The SOIL…

This document comprises an evaluation of the first-year implementation of the New York City Board of Education's three-year Dropout Prevention Program (DPP), implemented in 10 high schools and 29 middle schools; and the Attendance Improvement Dropout Prevention (AIDP) program, implemented in 3 high schools. Two intervention models were implemented…

This study was designed to examine how teachers' beliefs and values influence the successful integration of microcomputers into the curriculum. Semi-structured interviews with 20 teachers were conducted in elementary, middle, and high schools in one urban and one suburban district in New York State and responses were categorized into four groups:…

The three papers in this briefing provide guidance for planners and program designers responding to the child care challenges of the 1990s. Rebecca Maynard explores the child care market for low-income parents, finding that even though family day care is plentiful in low-income areas, child care centers operate at or near capacity, and neither…

An evaluation was conducted to provide Saskatchewan Education with information about the effectiveness of: (1) a program evaluation package for use at the school level consisting of the "School-Based Program Evaluation Manual" (Burgess, 1987) and its related workshop; and (2) a pilot-site model for the implementation of the evaluation…

Based on the document "Final Report on the Study to Develop a Library Automation Blueprint for the New Jersey Library Network" (December 1987) and the reaction to it by the New Jersey library community, this plan was produced to guide the New Jersey State Library in meeting the goal of developing one statewide database containing the holdings…

This report addresses two elements of an eight-part study of South Carolina's vocational education system. The report provides an overview of major national and state issues regarding vocational education in grades 9-12 and the structure and operation of the system. Statewide information about enrollment patterns and a profile of students who…

There is considerable interest in the conceptualization and design of the clincial components of teacher preparation programs generally, and a growing interest in inquiry-oriented programs. This study sought to determine perceptions of the degree of implementation of an inquiry-oriented student teaching curriculum at the University of Northern…

All 24 of Maryland's county school systems participated in a voluntary school improvement program that involved the adoption and implementation of one or more of four research-based, instructional processes: Active Teaching, Mastery Learning, Student Team Learning, and Teaching Variables. A 5-year study of this program produced findings on a…

Principals and teachers involved in implementing benchmark testing in a large, urban, midwestern school district progressed from lower to higher stages of concern during the 4 years of a longitudinal study. A random sample of the teachers and all the principals in the district's 49 elementary, 9 junior high, and 10 high schools completed the…

Through programs aimed at enhancing educational effectiveness, states can play important and substantive roles in helping local schools, students, teachers, and principals improve, according to the study "State Strategies to Support Local School Improvement: Cross Site Analysis." The study identifies the key elements of the local change…