This bibliography provides an introduction to literature regarding strategies for educational improvement within the rural context. Ninety-three journal articles and books cover the following areas: (1) curriculum design and teaching methods, including research reports, case studies of improvement programs, and manuals used in implementing or…

A school/community partnership in Louisville, Kentucky, the Jefferson County Public Schools/Gheens Professional Development Academy, is described. This report provides a framework for assessing Jefferson County School System reforms in the past 8 years or more designed to enhance student success in learning. A Spiral of Assessment was used to…

The 7 newsletter issues presented here review the efforts of 10 Midwestern community colleges to achieve greater leadership diversity on their campuses. Called Beacon projects (or collectively, the Beacon Project) after the grant that provided the funding for these efforts, the projects described cover a wide range of approaches. Among them are…

This Digest discusses School-to-Work (STW) programs, which are aimed at developing an integrated secondary school curriculum that facilitates students' transition from school to the workplace. It addresses school-based learning in STW programs, especially the practices that language arts teachers can use in classrooms to meet STW goals. The Digest…

English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students often finish their language courses without ever having an opportunity to interact with native English speakers or without getting an idea of what the target culture is really like. Interactive videoconferencing can help students gain insight into the target culture when they are using conversational…

This paper provides an overview and description of the Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study (CAGS) program in professional development in public schools offered at Fitchburg State College (Massachusetts). The CAGS provides opportunities for people in the same school system to develop knowledge, skills, and teaching methodologies to work with…

This manual presents information about major causes of developmental disabilities, discusses strategies to prevent development disabilities, and identifies relevant resources and reference material. Introductory information defines developmental disabilities and prevention (under Virginia statutes). The first section considers causes prior to and…

Noting that communities and states all across America are working to achieve the first National Education Goal--by the year 2000, all children in America will start school ready to learn--this paper provides information on efforts to meet that goal. The first portion of the paper presents a definition of readiness to learn devised by the Education…

This report presents an overview of training courses for further education lecturers in the United Kingdom and offers observations on developments in the field of further education lecturer training. Recommendations of previous reports concerning the training of further education lecturers are analyzed, and the current situation is examined.…

An adult education program designed to help limited-English-proficient students through the transition from basic English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) instruction to more comprehensive adult basic education (ABE) is described. This transition is often difficult because of a mix of student needs, literacy backgrounds, and language proficiency levels…

This theme issue of the Bernard van Leer Foundation's "Newsletter" is devoted to approaches to working with disadvantaged children up to 3 years of age. An introduction describes the crucial period from before birth to 3 years, noting that although the mother's body provides the an essential part of the environment, other easily…

The work of the National Research Center on Student Learning (CSL) is described. The CSL, one of 23 national centers funded by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, is an integral part of the Learning Research and Development Center of the University of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania). The CSL conducts interdisciplinary research that…

The faculty at an urban school serving prekindergarten through fifth grade were concerned about poor teacher performance on an area of the Texas Teacher Appraisal System (TTAS) that assessed their ability to present information accurately and to explain content and/or learning tasks clearly. Responding to their concern, this document describes an…

This paper describes a successful facilitator training model, developed as part of an Adult Basic/Continuing Education (AB/CE) staff development program in Minnesota. The following topics are included: (1) the new basics and what is taught in the Minnesota AB/CE programs; (2) how these new basics are taught, emphasizing Malcolm Knowles' model of…

Designed for media specialists and educators, this issue includes five articles exploring the contributions of children's films to museum programs. Following a brief editorial encouraging the use of films in museums, the first article outlines a picture storybook model for evaluating children's films. Several storybook models are identified, and a…