This digest describes the development of the standard middle school and its impact on rural areas, discusses the original goals of middle schooling, and suggests how rural schools can meet these goals despite their small size. The earliest middle schools were innovative rural junior high schools that enriched their programs with additional…

A remediation approach developed by the Vilonia public schools (Arkansas) to remediate content/skill deficiencies in middle level students resulted from three conditions: state laws and regulations regarding minimum competency testing; more awareness of problems with at-risk students; and recognition of the need to reach students academically…

Research findings from various countries on the role of schools in student development are reviewed, with an eye toward promoting a comparative model for research on the subject. First, research is discussed that indicates that schools have little or no effect relative to students' home background and individual qualities (the 1966 Coleman report…

Problems and opportunities posed for liberal arts colleges by the current political concern for educating students for high technology industries are considered. Recent reports on education, high technology, employment, and economic growth are concerned with the competitive position of the United States versus other industrialized nations,…

The role of state-level goals in providing a framework for assessing the performance of postsecondary education in Georgia is considered. The effort of the Governor's Committee on Postsecondary Education in developing goals and indicators of goal achievement and in analyzing performance is described. The Committee developed a set of goals and…

The results of several cross-sectional and longitudinal studies of students at liberal arts colleges and other postsecondary institutions are reported to demonstrate that liberal arts education has beneficial effects not produced by any other kind of training. Chapters include: approaches to evaluating liberal education; measuring cognitive,…

The benefits and broad perspectives that can result from higher education and the tension that exists between vocational and liberal education are addressed. It is suggested that this tension is powerfully related both to the content and the quality of higher education. The importance of introducing students to those themes of life that are…

Prepared as the result of a revision of the vocational education curricula by members of the Western State Curriculum Council (American Samoa, Arizona, California, Guam, Hawaii, Nevada, and the Trust Territories of the Pacific), this guide is intended to help meet the needs of both students and a highly technical and rapidly changing society. It…

Student development has come to have a special meaning that focuses on activities undertaken for the educational benefit of the student outside the traditional purview of the professor. It has a positive educational rather than administrative aspect that has come to be associated with student personnel work. This accentuating of the positive has…

This 4-part document provides an overview of educational evaluation. Part I outlines the problems in educational evaluation, distinguishing between evaluations of student performance (objective attainment) and those of system operation (cost-effectiveness). Part II reviews existing practices in educational evaluation, focusing on the evaluation of…

For students to develop to their fullest, educators must understand that traditional notions of potential can have a negative effect. Educators must understand the nature of potential to anticipate and promote the emergence of qualities not yet evident, as well as to capitalize on potentials already manifest. (IS)

Television can be used as an effective tool by teachers despite the harmful quality of much television programing seen by children. If teachers were to integrate their curriculum with the relevant television programing, children's personality integration would be aided and education could influence the quality of commercial television programing.…

Gives a brief historical review of student development and explores difficulties which emerge from inappropriate adoption of the student development model. Proposes an alternate perspective that preserves student education as fundamental to colleges and student affairs and suggests change strategies. (JAC)

Higher education is seen as having replaced religion as the system of redemption in mass society, socializing students in the secular religion of production/consumption. Rather than educating and enriching students' lives, higher education is viewed as thwarting needs for autonomy and identity formation, leaving students only with career…

Critical themes and specific alternatives for helping adolescents with disabilities to avoid severely limiting their life choices are discussed. The themes concern relating learning experiences to the youth's life, providing experiences that allow and prepare youth for adulthood, and adult caring and advocacy for youth. Interventions supporting…