A practicum study was planned and implemented by a working mother for the purpose of developing a child care resource and referral agency in an eastern metropolitan area. The objective of the practicum was to increase the number of child care referrals available to working families by 10 percent over a 10-week period. Of the 110 surveys mailed to…

A program was developed to improve the physical fitness of 15 trainable mentally retarded students in a special school. Preliminary surveys of parents and teachers and observations of students indicated that the majority of students in the targeted group were physically unfit and exhibited poor attitudes about physical exercise. A daily…

A study was conducted at Shelby State Community College (SSCC) in Tennessee to determine the extent, causes, and solutions to the problem of student retention. The study involved: (1) a comparative analysis of headcounts to assess the extent of the dropout problem, which indicated that enrollments declined sharply from 5,289 in 1983 to 3,399 in…

This practicum report presents a plan to reduce referrals for psychological evaluations in the schools in Dade County, Florida. Three goals of the plan are identified: (1) to reduce the backlog of referrals in three elementary schools; (2) to improve the placement rate of those students who are referred; and (3) to help teachers identify children…

This practicum developed a program to enhance the job performance of support personnel (behavior modification technicians) who work with students having conduct disorders. The behavior modification technicians provided building-level support for principals and teachers working with black adolescents from socially deprived backgrounds. Inservice…

The practicum sought to identify areas of relative strength and weakness in support for the Saint Leo College (Florida) Library Acquisitions Project, a project to improve library support to the Military Education Program administered by Saint Leo College on military installations throughout the Southeast. Using the Interactive Forces Theory of…

The purpose of this practicum was to develop an on-site training program for latchkey family day care home providers. Practicum objectives were to (1) develop a pilot project involving three family day care homes in Pinellas County, Florida; (2) assist caregivers in meeting the annual training requirements; (3) design and implement, on-site, a…

A 20-minute-long videotape program, intended for regular classroom teachers involved in mainstreaming, was developed and implemented to meet in-service needs of elementary school teachers in Cherry Hill, a township in Camden County, New Jersey. Included in the videotape program were an explanation of Public Law 94-142; an overview of the decision…

A team of three educators developed and implemented a reading improvement program for first through sixth grade students who displayed discrepancies between their reading achievement and reading abilities. The program involved 283 underachieving students at seven elementary schools. The goal of the program was to provide intervention strategies…

This practicum study was designed to improve the communication and social skills of 43 students (ages 14-22) with developmental disabilities by involving families in at-home treatment activities that reinforced and enhanced in-school and community-based speech/language therapy and by increasing attendance of parents at school meetings and…

This practicum sought to develop a video-based orientation program for a day care center. A one-time orientation meeting was not feasible for this community college-based center, due to flexible scheduling, staggered starting dates of new staff, and a diverse staff. An increase in staff size, space, and enrollment intensified the already difficult…

This practicum focused on improving the funding of a state-supported, non-profit day care center through the development of a marketing plan, enhanced fundraising techniques, increased involvement by the center's board of directors, and heightened community awareness. To accomplish these goals, board members were interviewed and encouraged to use…

This practicum was designed to increase the ability of human services professionals to provide knowledgeable and effective direction and support for adoptive parents of children with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder. A 1-day training program and materials were developed to reach the goal, and two social workers were trained to present the…

In response to parents' expressed need for appropriate academic strategies to be used at home with their kindergarten children, a series of parent workshops were designed to explain the philosophy of developmentally appropriate practices with children and to train parents to select activities that followed the philosophy. Participating parents…

A program implemented in a school district in central New Jersey was designed to: (1) create at least four magnet school options for elementary school children; (2) reduce the suspension rate at the elementary level; (3) reduce the student referral rate for special education; (4) decrease the number of students requiring basic skills services; and…