This nine-year database study examined factors related to the return rate of 316 nontraditional gifted students who participated in a summer program for academically talented youth. Grade point average, achievement test scores, final grade in the first summer of attendance, and socioeconomic status were not significant predictors of returnee…

Examines the role of tension in the process of instructed second/foreign language acquisition on the basis of findings from a comprehensive ethnography of the 7-week intensive beginners' class in the summer French School of Middlebury College. This project completes and challenges the current research paradigm on language anxiety as it shifts the…

Describes the Summer Science Program at Bath University in England which provides an intimate study of different approaches to teaching science and offers an informal and extended opportunity to work with educators from all over the United States, England, and many other countries. Studies the national education system of Great Britain and…

For 22 years, at 166 sites around the world, over 1 million teachers have been teaching each other in nearly identical National Writing Project summer institutes. This article discusses the lessons learned about teacher leadership, the qualities of worthwhile staff development, writing instruction, and educational reform's bumpy landscape. (MLH)

"Walking the Talk" (Lozada) describes summer programs in which counselors enroll in summer school courses; "Teachers for Hire" (McClain) shows vocational teachers participating in an externship program updating their knowledge while earning graduate-level credit; and "Earning and Learning" (Lozada) tells how high school students take college-level…

This study examined the academic achievement of 45 incarcerated youth who received an intensive, 6-week summer reading program involving 3 hours of direct instruction and whole language reading activities per day. Significant improvements on 3 of 4 reading tests were found. Overall reading abilities of participants remained low, however,…

Describes a summer externship program in Nevada which offers educators a stipend to spend 90 hours at a summer jobsite in their home community. Discusses the many benefits to educators and to employers. Discusses the author's experience in her summer externship, and the deep influence it had in her second-grade class teaching. (SR)

Project Search trains teams of high school teachers in environmental monitoring methodology in a summer institute. The focus is on applying science to real-life learning. (SK)

Reports on Seeds of Peace, a summer camp that brings together Arab and Israeli teenagers to embark on the process of making peace. Brings together teenagers from nations at war and allows them the physical, psychological, and emotional space to meet each other. Suggests that the concept of the camp works because real peace is made between people…

Examines the effectiveness of Teach Baltimore, a program (using trained college student volunteers) to prevent summer learning loss, for a group of 300 low-income, public elementary students, compared with 135 control students. Except for low-achieving kindergarteners, results show consistent, if statistically insignificant, positive effects for…

Describes a mathematics-focused summer camp for inner city, African American, at-risk secondary school students. Situated on a college campus, the camp grouped participants with college students and professional mathematicians. Results of pre- and posttests indicated that students' mathematics scores increased significantly. Both participants and…

After attending an astronomy camp at Tarleton State University (TSU) for teachers and secondary students in Summer 2002, the author, a kindergarten teacher, was disappointed to discover that the university offered no science camps for elementary students. She returned to her preK-K campus, whining to her principal. What a shame no one would take…

From the program faculty of St. Scholastica's National Institute on Aging Summer Institute on the Psychology of Aging, 7 members responded to a series of questions posed to them in individual telephone interviews. They represented a wide range of disciplinary interests and institutions. Their motivation for participation, their advice for both…

The National Institutes of Health Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA) program introduces research funding into regional universities and liberal arts colleges where hurdles to successful pursuit of research programs are substantial. Nevertheless, the authors of papers in this issue competed successfully and have benefited undergraduates in…

If educators expect more children to be successful in literacy experiences at school, then they must strive to form lasting partnerships with parents (Fried, 2001). The educators working with the after-school and summer literacy program actively sought to form partnerships with family members at a small rural elementary school in a southern state.…