SCSD, a structurally coordinated school building components system, is a highly automated method of building new schools that creatively meet the needs of the ever changing educational environment through functional and flexible planning. Examples of why SCSD high schools are efficient, flexible, and spatially planned, are cited. Environmental…

Building Research is urged to expand into areas concerned with human behavior, and a need for information on how people react physically and mentally, and how they perform their various tasks in environment created for them by the design professions, is cited. A research project at the University of Michigan is described, aimed at measuring the…

In this abridged talk concerning the preparation of behavioral objectives for foreign language learning, the author expounds on procedures considered necessary for curriculum development. The four-step model includes: (1) specification of objectives, (2) pre-assessment of previously acquired skills or knowledge, (3) determination of instructional…

In July, 1967, the Idaho State Department of Education requested the College of Education of the University of Idaho to undertake a study of the organization of the public school districts of the State and to develop criteria which could be applied uniformly in the State to achieve a more efficient system of public education. This is the third and…

The Oregon school graduation requirements, the trends and events that led to their development, and the implementation program that followed their adoption are the subjects of this report. The requirements, adopted in September 1972, call for districts to establish minimum "survival level" competencies that each student must meet in…

National Assessment, a systematic survey of knowledge, skills, and attitudes, provides educators and the public with information on student achievement. The data-gathering model for the Assessment has yielded differences of various groups' performances in the area of political knowledge. These results seem to imply that the academic approach to…

Since 1969, the Oregon State Board of Education has undertaken to reverse the trend toward providing a single, rigid program for all students, regardless of their abilities, interests, needs, or learning styles. The new standards focus on the concept of providing students an opportunity to learn and demonstrate specific "survival"…

This paper examines the possibility of establishing a threshold level for the projected European units/credits system for modern languages in adult education. By threshold level is understood "a basic level of foreign language proficiency the level below which no further levels could be usefully distinguished." It is concluded that the height of…

A consensus has prevailed among educators that Americans of verying ethnic, social, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds who must communicate with each other in social, academic, and occupational situations might achieve a greater degree of rapport if the dialect of the English mutually spoken and the speech mannerisms used were standardized.…

This report identifies some of the relative advantages and disadvantages enjoyed by differing language groups in the Toronto school system. Eight groups of students were selected and studied in an attempt to determine whether cultural differences produce distinct patterns of performance on a variety of measures. The groups selected represent the…

A replicable process for improving instruction through the consistent use of student data collected before, during, and after instruction is proposed. A rational analysis of different types of error rates (theoretical, base, posttest, instructional) and discrimination indices (base, posttest) leads to a set of rules for identifying test items and…

These conference proceedings contain addresses and comments of some 42 participants. Papers are grouped in three major sections: (1) the status of individualized foreign language instruction today, (2) small-group presentations, and (3) viewpoints on change. The papers cover a wide variety of topics including a review of the state-of-the-art,…

The material presented here is designed to be used as a training program in the preparation, selection, and use of visual aids in instruction. Some prior training in the application of behavioral principles to the preparation of instructional materials is assumed. The program consists of a handbook and a workbook. All the information in the…

Tests of conditionability in infants were used in a longidudinal study of 32 subjects in the first year of life. The research was based on Eysenck's hypothesis that conditionability i s a unitary factor related to introversion-extroversion and attention span. The objective of the investigators was to devise a battery of conditioning tasks…

The Gilroy, California, Unified School District contracted with Westinghouse Learning Corporation for the 1970-71 school year for the purpose of improving reading and mathematics achievement of approximately 100 Spanish-surnamed boys and girls from grades 2-4. The average gain at the end of the program was 0.6 achievement years in reading and 0.8…