THE GENERAL CURRICULUM PROGRAM WAS ESTABLISHED FOR BUILDING OF SKILLS AND DEVELOPMENT OF BREADTH OF BACKGROUND IN PREPARATION FOR CONVENTIONAL COLLEGE CLASSES. PRETESTS AND POST-TESTS WERE EVALUATED FOR 165 STUDENTS AFTER ONE SEMESTER IN THE PROGRAM AND SHOWED SIGNIFICANT INCREASES IN ACADEMIC SKILL LEVEL, WRITING, AND READING. SIMILAR RESULTS…

This chapter, published as part of an extensive report on an experimental college program for low-achieving students, provides a comprehensive review of recent research literature related to low-achievers. Organized into several sections, the review deals with literature on identifying over-and under-achievers, factors related to achievement and…

A study was undertaken to examine and strengthen the examination system at Hampshire College. During the study the college was in its third and fourth years of operation. The system, known as progress by examination, is comprised of six diagnostic and evaluative meetings between students and their faculty to determine their eventual satisfactory…

This Teacher Corps program at Michigan State University is attempting to improve the quality of preservice teacher education within a competency based framework. The program emphasizes consistent use of instructional design and the instructional processes of assessment, goal setting, determining objectives, developing teaching strategies, and…

This report marks the conclusion of a two-year study of SEE (School of Experiential Education), an alternative high school. It is a statement of the examining group's perceptions of SEE's second year of operation and of implications for SEE's future development. Because the evaluation group believes that a new program such as this takes four to…

This paper reviews the literature pertaining to the economic feasibility, public acceptance, and learning outcomes of year-round schools. Although much of the discussion is applicable to public schools throughout the United States, the author is mainly concerned with determining the suitability of a year-round school plan for the small Illinois…

The differentiated outcome hypothesis posits that the maximum effects of an educational program are realized along those dimensions emphasized in the program or in those central to the persons involved. The idea that educational programs employing unconventional means should be examined on outcomes that are consistent with those means is derived…

A survey of current research in the teaching of English, describing several experimental programs in secondary school level composition and literature appreciation, and a study in children's literature instruction. (JB)

Three research studies were conducted by the academic advisers in the College of Education at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale to test a method of increasing retention and academic performance of currently enrolled high-risk students. Students recruited for the research had had less than 75 hours passed and grade points below 2.15, making…

It was the purpose of the study to allow a limited number of students (200) at St. Cloud State College (now a university) in Minnesota an opportunity to design their own programs of study without regard to college curriculum regulations. The pilot program was limited to students working for a bachelor of arts degree (liberal arts). Two control…

This progress report of a 2-year project (ending April 30, 1968) offers a random sampling of course schedule configurations and specific course performance criteria submitted to the Stanford project staff for evaluation and comment, and a brief statement of the project's data collection and data evaluation objectives. The project seeks to…

The first year of a new program, in which students were expected to take responsibility for their own education, is evaluated in this report. Study was almost entirely independent; students usually worked at their own rate and used the teacher as a resource person. Parental and community involvement was emphasized. Volunteers worked at the school,…

Students who did not meet the minimal admissions standards of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, were enrolled conditionally in the summer quarter of 1971. For these 67 students, the requirement for completion of at least 12 hours in their first quarter at the university, with a grade-point average of at least 1.00 in order to continue in the…

This book examines in detail the experiment in educational performance contracting conducted by the United States Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) during the 1970-71 school year. Major objectives of the OEO project were to find out whether a private educational firm could teach educationally disadvantaged children to read and write better than…

A two-year evaluation of William Glasser's Schools Without Failure (SWF) program was carried out in the New Castle School District in Pennsylvania. Ten elementary schools were paired on the basis of size, socioeconomic status, and past achievement of pupils. In the first year, one school of each pair was randomly assigned to begin teacher training…