Do the learning benefits of full-day (versus half-day) kindergarten outweigh the expense of hiring more teachers and adding classroom space? The authors describe planning and implementing a pilot program. The positive outcomes for children-including earlier emergent literacy skills, a more relaxed pace, and easier transition to first grade-lead…

Some scholars see it as a gold mine, others as a subject they wouldn't touch with a 10-foot pole. Either way, the chance to study the new federally financed school voucher program in the nation's capital has piqued the interest of education researchers around the country. Spelled out in detail in the D.C. School Choice Incentive Act of 2003--part…

A qualitative study of a pilot writing course for baccalaureate social work (BSW) students evaluated the process and development of students' academic and professional writing. The course provided students the opportunity to build writing skills, develop a professional paper, and present at a national social work conference. Students and…

The objectives of this study were to: (a) determine if very young children will wear an accelerometer for relatively long periods of time and comply with the protocol for its use; (b) evaluate how well a caregiver can estimate the activity level of his/her infant or toddler when completing an exposure-oriented time activity diary; and (c) compare…

This paper focuses primarily on the methodological considerations of a study investigating the interactions of pairs of disabled and non-disabled children working together on computer-based tasks, in mainstream primary schools in Cyprus. Twenty dyads of pupils (each pair comprising a disabled child and a non-disabled peer), were observed and…

This paper reports the results of a pilot in-service teacher training program undertaken in China from 2001 to 2004. Upon completion, the in-service teachers were awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree (non-honor) specializing in English Language Education. Many interesting findings resulted from this pilot program. By integrating low- and…

Case-based activities are widely proclaimed to enable better learning through allowing students to practice application of concepts in real-life situations. This paper reports an investigation into the learning benefits derived from engaging students in the development of Pharmacy eCases. This is a small scale pilot study. Two student-developers…

The purpose of this study was to develop and gather validity evidence for silent reading fluency passages. A number of passages were written following a traditional story grammar structure (character, setting, events) and placed on a computer for students to read silently. We describe in detail, the manner in which content-related evidence was…

The purpose of this study was to document the instrument development of maze measures for grades 3-8. Each maze passage contained twelve omitted words that students filled in by choosing the best-fit word from among the provided options. In this technical report, we describe the process of creating, reviewing, and pilot testing the maze measures.…

In 2001, the U.S. Department of Education and the Ministry of Education in China entered into a bilateral partnership to develop a technology-driven approach to foreign language learning that integrated gaming, immersion, voice recognition, problem-based learning tasks, and other features that made it a significant research and development pilot…

This pilot study examined, from a dynamic systems perspective, changes in maternal/child discourse behaviors across repeated readings of a storybook. Four Caucasian children (2 boys, 2 girls), ranging in age from 2 years 7 months to 2 years 10 months, were videotaped reading unfamiliar storybooks with their mothers. The videotapes were…

A pilot study examined the kinds of comments made on oral interpretation ballots and whether the comments suggest a useful criteria for an effective oral interpretation performance. A total of 1,737 comments were recorded from 304 ballots from two forensics tournaments. Classifications of comments were created as ballots were analyzed. A total of…

An instrument was developed to measure the perceptions of principals toward problems related to educational vouchers (EVs). Thirty-four items concerning freedom of choice, equalization, segregation, church and state issues, and enrollment and recruitment were originally chosen through a literature review. Seventeen graduate students in…

A study examined the effectiveness of the Reading Recovery Pilot program of the school district of the city of Saginaw, Michigan. Thirty-five of the original 55 students in the program were successfully discontinued from the program--they read with a 90% or greater level of accuracy materials being used in the classroom and use the kinds of…

A pilot project attempted to measure reactions of participants to the Technology Education Division program at the national convention of the American Vocational Association in St. Louis (December 1992). After a review of the literature, a Conference Reaction Model was developed and subjected to peer review. After several revisions, a pilot…