"Alabama Education News" is published monthly except for June, July, and December by the Alabama Department of Education. This publication, authorized by Section 16-2-4 of the "Code of Alabama," as recompiled in 1975, is a public service of the Alabama Department of Education designed to inform citizens and educators about…

In the 1996-1997 school year, the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), Illinois, began a national trend when it included a required summer program, Summer Bridge, as a central component of its efforts to end social promotion. More than 21,000 students in grades 3, 6, and 8, the promotional gate grades, have attended Summer Bridge each year, making it one…

This paper describes Camp Ramah, a residential summer camp in Central Ontario that offers a one month program for adolescents with developmental disabilities. Up to 15 special needs campers, ages 12-25, participate with up to 400 campers and 150 staff in a residential camping experience. Most campers have mild to moderate mental retardation, some…

This final report describes activities and accomplishments of a 3-year project of faculty and curricular development using a variety of classic texts and involving 10 liberal arts colleges and one state university. Three-week summer seminars were held for faculty who studied self-selected classics introduced by master teachers, and discussed…

This directory provides 6,140 listings of resources in learning disabilities. Resources include publications, programs, state services, instructional materials, videotape recordings, films, periodicals, tests, schools, professional texts, conferences, and government agencies. Listings are grouped into 20 chapters that cover: (1) adult literacy;…

This paper provides an overview of the Voyager Expanded Learning programs. Initially begun with hands-on, activity-based learning experiences centered around academic themes designed to pique children's interest and motivate them to learn, Voyager has expanded from elementary after- and summer-school programs to include K-8 programs designed for…

Entering college students participated in a 4-week summer transition program that offered intensive course-based academic training and opportunities for faculty-student interaction. Enrichment activities were used in addition to instruction to consolidate student learning. Data were collected for 176 program participants from the class of 2001 and…

This paper reports the results of a five-week intervention designed to improve students' writing proficiency through self-efficacy training in a remedial summer course. Twenty pre-freshmen students participated in the program. In addition to whole-class instruction, students met individually with instructional coordinators. During these meetings…

After deducting holidays, the annual school term in most American cities is not more than 180 days. In many cities and towns the number of actual school days is still less. This means that children who are never absent attend school less than half the days of the year, a little more than 1 hour in 10. Formerly the school year was much longer in…

Discusses the objectives, curricula, and accomplishments of an interdisciplinary summer institute designed to prepare college teachers qualified in both the life sciences and engineering. Indicates that joint educational programs between engineering, science, and medical faculties are completely feasible if each group is interested in the other…

Reported was a project intended to develop regional centers for preservice and inservice education to assist teachers, administrators, parents, and teacher aides to incorporate exceptional students into regular classrooms. (GW)

Reviews development of NSF (National Science Foundation) earth science summer, inservice, and academic year institutes. Includes statistics from 1957 to 1971 for number of participants, topic areas, number of institutes, number in each state, and other related information. Institutes are an important source of advanced degrees for secondary…

Describes the program in a summer institute for 25 junior high school science teachers. Innovations used in the program included lecture-demonstrations, small group discussions, open-ended laboratories, and viewing physics films. Problems that arose are reviewed. The method of evaluating the teachers is described. (LC)