Fifth-grade inner city boys engaged in reader response via e-mail with preservice teacher education candidates. Books and laptops were provided via funding from a federal grant. At the semester break, the boys were assigned new partners with which to correspond regarding their reading. All e-mails were filtered through the classroom teachers and…

This document presents the proceedings of the 20th Annual Research Forum held June 25, 2015, at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Included are the following 21 action research papers: (1) History Lives! The Use of Simulations in a High School Social Studies Classroom (Lydia Adkins); (2) Using Francophone Music in the High…

School systems must comply with numerous federal and state requirements in filling positions. This article sets forth those requirements in four areas: (1) advertising positions; (2) interviewing candidates; (3) selecting a candidate; and (4) verifying a candidate's legal status. (MLF)

Examines the decision-making process of purchasing CD-ROMs for libraries. Evaluation criteria include hardware requirements, ease of installation, adequacy of documentation, user friendliness of displays, ease of searching, frequency of updates, downloading and printing capabilities, technical support, and vendor reputation. Identifies sources and…

Since 1959 the Young Adult Library Services Association's (YALSA) Outstanding Books for the College Bound committees have debated and selected both classic and contemporary book titles for recommended reading lists of books for young adults who are planning to continue their education beyond high school. This book presents their cumulative…

This book discusses issues to consider when purchasing an encyclopedia and provides reviews of eight print encyclopedias, six CD-ROM encyclopedias, and one online encyclopedia. Each review provides an address and discusses the history, scope and treatment, and quality and currency of the encyclopedia; for CD-ROM encyclopedias, the database…

Saint Mary's College (Indiana) offers a minor program in computer science. The program's introductory computer science class traditionally taught Pascal. The decision to change the introductory programming language to C++ with an object oriented approach was made when it became clear that there were good texts available for beginning students.…

This document examines legal issues in the negligent hiring and retention of North Carolina Department of Public Instruction school employees. There are no statutes that relate specifically to negligent hiring or retention; it is a judicially created area of law. This document centers around employees who cause injury to school children, but the…

The process of evaluating and selecting basal readers has long been a primary concern for educators. Educators directly involved with textbook adoptions have expressed several concerns, including: time pressures on evaluators; lack of training for evaluators; concerns related to publishers; and correlations with state or district curriculum.…

To determine the relationship between particular reading materials used most frequently with students in grades one through six and the amount of progress students made during the 1982-83 school year, a study was conducted by the District of Columbia Public Schools. Nine of the ten reading materials on the approved textbook list were assessed, and…

In an effort to better understand the intents of those policies that prescribe state-level textbook adoption, a study collected and analyzed data from (1) the textbook adoption statutes of each of the 22 "state adoption" states, (2) documents and policy manuals produced by the state departments of education of each of these 22 states,…

With 50 percent of all principals planning to retire in the 1980's, hiring good principals should be a matter of planning rather than chance. This pamphlet notes the strategies that can help to ensure that a district hires effective educational leaders as principals. Developing effective job descriptions and interviewing techniques, though…

The instructional materials listed in this document were reviewed by a California Legal Compliance Committee using the social content requirements of the Educational Code concerning the depiction of males and females, ethnic groups, older persons, disabled persons, and others to ensure that the materials were responsive to social concerns.…

Readability formulas can be useful tools in accomplishing their primary purpose--to give very general estimates of difficulty. Unfortunately, there has been a great deal of misunderstanding regarding their use, which has resulted in misuse and abuse. The formulas were designed to be applied post hoc to existing materials. They were not intended to…

Student-teacher contracts are used to individualize instruction in a course on the selection of instructional materials for a school library collection. The course was designed as part of a graduate library/media training program. Included are: (1) a description of the course and its student objectives, (2) student contracts for each course topic,…