Background: Recent research suggests that instrumental relationship styles can enhance the effectiveness of school-based mentoring, however, little research has been conducted with young children. This study reports findings from a three-year evaluation of an instrumental Literacy-Enhanced Mentoring (LEM) program that integrates a structured,…

Many states have implemented or expanded state-funded prekindergarten programs in the last decade, encouraged by claims about the benefits that can be expected and the importance of early experiences for children's development, especially for economically disadvantaged children. However, there is remarkably little methodologically adequate…

The author favorably reviews the "SUCCESS in Beginning Reading and Writing Program" developed by Dr. Anne Adams of Duke University. The two-hour instructional program is divided into four modules: phonics/spelling; content reading; writing language experience stories; and recreational reading. Program costs and ease of use are noted.…

This paper begins by describing the basic design and scope of Tennessee's Student Teacher Achievement Ratio (Project STAR), which began in 1985. The project was designed to determine the effect of reduced class size on the achievement and development of students in kindergarten through grade three. Findings that demonstrated that students in…

A 10-week practicum intervention was designed to reduce deficiencies in 10 kindergarten children in southwest Florida with poor fine motor skills. The intervention consisted of daily instruction and weekly activity tests. Activities included drawing, tracing, cutting with scissors, pasting, molding with clay, various games, lacing, weaving, and…

The objective of the Adaptive Learning Environments Model (ALEM) is to establish and maintain school environments that ensure optimal learning success opportunities for most students through adaptive instruction. Modification of the environment to accommodate student differences has been an important design consideration in the development of the…

The report evaluates a Swiss bilingual education program in the City of Sierre/Siders in which 19 Francophone children aged 5-6 years received half their instruction in French and half in German over a period of a year. Participants were evaluated for their German language skill development in November, February, and June. Results indicate that…

Data collected during the first year of a 3-year study are reported. The study evaluated the effectiveness of a variety of special services provided to approximately 10,000 language-minority limited-English-proficient first- and third-grade students in English-medium classrooms in a national sample of 18 school districts. Services studied are not…

This 12-week practicum intervention was designed to enhance the listening skills of 22 kindergartners by means of a cooperative home-school developmental program. In the class, stories and poetry with listening themes were read aloud on a daily basis. Story structure was stressed. Puppets, flannel board stories, and dramatics were used. In…

The Early Intervention for School Success (EISS) program was designed to provide developmentally appropriate instruction in kindergarten and first grade classrooms, by providing the knowledge and skills that teachers and parents need to insure that children in California schools remain happy about learning. This goal is achieved by helping…

Two models of content-based second language instruction are compared. The two models, French language immersion and mainstreaming, are illustrated in two case studies that focus on how minority language children fare in kindergarten programs. The first case study is of a native Cantonese-speaking child enrolled in an early French immersion program…

A primary grades specialist implemented a 10-week practicum intervention designed to increase third graders' social skills by training their teachers in cooperative learning techniques and providing cooperatively structured lessons. Eight skills were addressed; these included the skills of accepting peers' ideas for group activities, completing…

A study compared language skill development and cultural attitudes of second-grade children taught in an additive-bilingual program setting with those of second-grade children from a monolingual classroom setting. Subjects were 41 second-grade children participating in a Spanish immersion program and 19 children from a regular second-grade…

This article argues that successful implementation of Reading Recovery requires a systematic plan to ensure that everyone at the district level, school level, teacher level, and parent/home level understand the goals and benefits of the program, including school board members, community members, central office administrators, principals, teachers,…

The evaluation design for Austin Independent School District's Elementary Secondary Education Act Title I project for 1981-82 is a 1-year plan of evaluation work which provides a brief project and evaluation summary, the major decision and evaluation questions to be addressed, other information needs, dissemination plans, and information sources…