A constructivist approach to parent education that enabled parents to be active participants in reflection and dialogue processes was tested in a study. Instruction was designed to stimulate and support self-reflection and dialogue processes enabling parents to be active participants in constructing new meanings to their child rearing practices.…

Kindergarten Plus, a program for disabled and non-disabled kindergarten students in an integrated classroom setting, was implemented in 5 New York City classrooms serving 99 kindergartners. The program's implementation and student outcomes were evaluated at the end of the first year. Classroom observation and staff interviews revealed that the…

The Basic/Technical Literacy project at White River Vocational Technical School in Arkansas implemented a comprehensive curriculum to raise students' basic reading and technical literacy levels in their chosen skill area. During the project, master vocabulary lists for each skill area were developed, and self-test worksheets and study guides were…

In this article, the author describes a new instructional design model and how it was applied to an educational planning and evaluation graduate class. The model is known as the "Isman model" and is described a five-step systematic planning process: (1) input; (2) process; (3) output; (4) feedback; and (5) learning. This process can be…

A general increase in the demand for workplace basic skills mirrors the general increase in societal basic skills demands. As a result, many adults are participating in second-chance basic skills education. Second-chance basic skills programs are offered by a wide variety of providers, but populations actually served by programs rarely amount to…

A study of elementary school foreign language programs in eight states yielded information about the status and design of language immersion, revitalized foreign language in the elementary schools (FLES), and foreign language experience (FLEX) programs. Immersion programs consist of the usual curriculum content presented entirely in a second…

The mathematics program of the Albuquerque (New Mexico) Public Schools (APS) was evaluated during the 1985-86 school year. Data were collected via surveys, interviews, analyses of student achievement data, and reviews of publications. The subjects were 506 teachers, 90 counselors, 1,502 students, 100 principals, and 965 parents. Evaluation…

Competency Based Teacher Education (CBTE) is examined as a means of providing a systematic approach to handling educational complexity which will lead to modernizing teacher education. Analysis and discussion are offered on: (1) what CBTE consists of and how it functions; (2) CBTE as an educational reform movement in the United States; (3)…

An inservice workshop program for elementary school teachers in Israel helps them in coping with students of diverse ethnic and economic backgrounds. Program topics include discussion of: individual differences, pluralistic views of education, tests and measurement methodology, and new instructional strategies. Emphasis is placed on values…

Intended to help teachers assess the effectiveness of their reading program, this paper suggests how teachers can emphasize comprehension in reading, what behaviors students demonstrate related to getting and creating meaning when reading, and how the classroom environment can promote reading for meaning. After describing effective teacher and…

Many teacher educators have concluded that the format of graduate reading practicum reports (which have been patterned after medical or psychological reports), needs to be reexamined or refined. In the University of Central Florida's reading practicum classes, practicum reports are becoming more simplified, with pedagogical and psychological…

Distilling and interpreting past and current research on the effective teaching of reading is the focus of this volume. The titles and authors are as follows: "Research in Effective Teaching: An Overview of Its Development" (William H. Rupley, Beth S. Wise, and John W. Logan); "Process-Product Research on Effective Teaching: A Primer for a…

The reading skill development of anglophone kindergarten children in French immersion programs in Canada is the subject of the two papers included in this document. The first paper describes a study that examined the English reading ability of both kindergarten and first grade children in immersion programs and compared the results with those of…

Efforts to evaluate the use of technology in education tend to be inconclusive because they lack specificity about what types of technology are being considered, what types of evaluation are being used, or both. While different evaluative studies focus on different valid objectives, the studies will provide generalizable information of practical…

The third phase of a three-cycle evaluation process designed for the Primary Education Program (PREP) of the Hillsborough County Public Schools (Tampa, Florida) was undertaken by evaluation teams in April 1981. Evaluation involved different data collection techniques. First, interviews with principals and curriculum intervention specialists at…