To encourage widespread parental participation in schools, both lay persons and professional staff should understand the primary assumptions which undergird shared efforts to create a unified, effective system of schooling. Proposed practice for an effective schooling system must be related to: (1) democratic concepts and their presumed strengths…

A study examined three recent language arts textbook programs for grades one through six to determine the frequency of writing activities, the nature of the writing tasks, and the frequency of process-approach activities such as selecting topics, prewriting, sharing, revising, and publishing. The programs analyzed were Scott, Foresman's "Language:…

Evaluating the impact of the recent state education reforms is an issue now confronting every state legislature. This paper focuses upon evaluating state education policies for a legislative audience. The text of the paper covers the following topics: (1) the urgency of staff evaluation; (2) how evaluation can help state legislators; (3)…

Six midwest institutions, consisting of two major universities, three large state-supported colleges, and one smaller liberal arts college, were studied in an effort to provide an indepth description of how elementary school teachers are prepared in preservice teacher education programs. Objectives were to provide a clearer picture of: (1) the…

Following a discussion of the characteristics of an ideal reading program, this paper presents a comparative analysis of two reading programs--one a teacher-created tradebook program and one a commercially prepared basal reader program--and measures them against the ideal. The paper analyzes the programs in terms of the following characteristics:…

A project was conducted to assist post-secondary vocational-technical teacher educators and staff development personnel in improving staff development programs in two-year post-secondary institutions. Thirty-one applicants were selected to participate in a national workshop. These applicants included vocational-technical teacher educators and…

THIS 10-MONTH STUDY WAS CONDUCTED TO COMPARE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF (1) A HIGHLY STRUCTURED TEACHING PLAN FOR LANGUAGE INSTRUCTION AND (2) A DEVELOPMENTAL, FLEXIBLE INSTRUCTIONAL APPROACH IN CORRECTING LANGUAGE DEFICIENCIES. THE EXPERIMENTAL CONDITIONS WERE ESTABLISHED CONSISTENT WITH THE RECOGNITION OF THE NEED TO INTERVENE EARLY IN THE…

Nearly forty monographs, papers and journal articles are abstracted in this review of recent literature on instructionally effective schooling. The works, most of them published since the mid-1970s, focus on various aspects of urban, minority, and compensatory education, as well as on more general issues in elementary and secondary educational…

This study evaluated the effectiveness of the Library Skills Learning Package, a printed, self-contained instructional program consisting of explanations and procedures for use of specific library resources and exercises which require the student to use a source in order to answer the questions. It was tested in a special communications class…

This study examined the impact that the training in and the experience of using an innovative instructional program had on the practices and attitudes of teachers who were no longer in the supportive setting. Three years after two innovative Title I programs--Free Learning Program (based on the Bank Street Model), and Primary Education…

This paper reviews and summarizes the literature on community college developmental mathematics programs in order to determine what the colleges are doing--in terms of placement, techniques, course content, and grading policies--to meet the needs of students lacking basic mathematical skills. Studies show that 10% to 50% of all community college…

The effectiveness of two courses designed to train 96 regular classroom teachers in rural areas to teach mildly handicapped children in their classrooms was examined. The courses covered teaching methods and materials and included self instructional materials. A posttest only control group design was employed. Data were collected on four measures:…

This study examined the effects of two programs which differed in the methods they employed to develop reading readiness. The two methods represented were a language experience approach and a phonics approach. The subjects were children from kindergarten classes in two elementary schools in Flint, Michigan. All subjects were randomly assigned…

To compare the instructional effectiveness of published programed instructional materials with individualized instruction, 376 of a possible 1,500 students enrolled in seven curriculums in two area vocational schools were involved in an 18-month experimental study. The 184 students in the control group and 192 students in the experimental group…

The major purposes of the project were to determine the nature of the literacy problem in the Army by studying the literacy demands of Army jobs together with the literacy skills of Army personnel, and to develop a literacy training program to provide job-related-functional, literacy skills. Literacy research and development performed by HumRRO…