Examples from a multiyear project in a Los Angeles (California) school in a low-income Hispanic school district illustrate successes of a program to improve the early reading achievement of Spanish-speaking primary school children. The interplay of research, practice, and school improvement resulted in significant improvement in early Spanish…

Examined the effectiveness of a 2-year, stage-based alcohol prevention intervention using nurse consultations and parent prevention materials among 6th graders in one neighborhood school and one bused magnet inner-city school. Students received either the experimental program or a minimal intervention. Student surveys and saliva testing indicated…

Urban minority children have higher rates of asthma morbidity due to multiple factors. Many school-based programs have been funded to improve asthma management, especially for these "high-risk" inner-city children with asthma. Here they report the outcomes of the Children's Hospital of Orange County Breathmobile program, which is a school-based…

It has been acknowledged that children from poverty begin school missing many of the prerequisites for school success. The 1963 US initiative, Head Start, is the major federal program aimed at providing children in poverty the experiences necessary to start school on an equal footing with their same-age peers. This article uses data from the Early…

The 14 Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA)-funded youth employment programs to which the Academy for Educational Development (AED) has delivered technical assistance for the past 5 years illustrate several important conditions for effective programming and "best practices" in the field of youth employment and training. Four of the JTPA…

The first findings of an evaluation of California's welfare-to-work program, Greater Avenues for Independence (GAIN), related to its impact on employment, earnings, and welfare payments. The impact results came from a study of applicants for and recipients of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) in six counties and were limited to the…

This practicum report describes an identification prototype used by a large metropolitan school district (Gwinnet County, Georgia) to identify giftedness in black and limited English speaking students. Underrepresentation of these groups in gifted programs is seen to result from: teacher reluctance to refer students from the target populations;…

This paper evaluates the effectiveness of the Beating the Odds (BTO) program of the Houston (Texas) schools in the 1990-91 school year, the third and final year of Phase I of the program. The BTO program provided training workshops for teachers of at-risk students and direct counseling and social service support for at-risk students in a selected…

A 5-year (1986-91) follow-up needs assessment was conducted to evaluate current single parent and displaced homemaker programs in New Jersey. Suggestions were offered to help them continue effectively helping the changing target population attain long-term economic self-sufficiency. Recommendations made in response to specific findings included…

The Wake County (North Carolina) Public School System first implemented Reading Recovery in 1990-91 and expanded the program in 1991-92. The goal of Reading Recovery is to provide intensive help to first graders having difficulty before their problems become too severe. Reading Recovery staff collected data, and the Chapter 1 evaluation specialist…

More than $25 billion in financial aid in 1988 is awarded annually to students attending postsecondary education. The aid covers about the same percentage of college costs that it did in 1970, but the impact of veterans' education benefits and social security benefits is no longer significant, and loans now make up one-half the total aid, having…

This report surveys the vocational education system, work experience programs, and job training programs for youths in Chicago. The report is organized in five sections. It begins with a brief review of the socioeconomic context that affects youth employment in the city of Chicago. Section 2 examines vocational training in the Chicago public…

This project assessed the impact of the Bureau of Vocational Education's Program for Disadvantaged Populations in Pennsylvania during the period 1979-1982. Data gathered from each funded project via a mailed questionnaire were both quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed. In addition, on-site visits to 10 projects produced additional qualitative…

This report provides an evaluation, for the school year 1982-83, of the Resident Environmental Classroom project for Chapter I classroom teachers and students in the Cleveland Public Schools. The project is designed to provide students with direct experience with the natural environment, exposure to experiential learning concepts, exposure to a…

This manual has been designed to help teachers use microcomputers in the education of handicapped and disadvantaged students. Microcomputer programs listed in section 1 of the manual have been used successfully by practitioners in the instruction of special needs students. Some of the programs were developed by commercial publishers and others are…