A descriptive study compared lesson plans from three groups of English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) teachers: experienced teacher; graduate students who had taught ESL before returning to school; and graduate students with no ESL teaching experience. The lesson plans were based on a textbook listening activity that included directions for listening…

Kansas has schools that compare well with the rest of the states. Kansas has met the 90% high school completion goal, with one of the highest graduation rates in the country and a low dropout rate. Kansas is also making significant progress in school readiness, with increasing numbers of Kansas women receiving early prenatal care, and fewer…

This report presents tables detailing enrollment data for fall 1998 at Maryland's public and independent colleges and universities. Highlights include: (1) total headcount enrollment increased by 3,000 to 264,802, which was the greatest one-year increase since 1990; (2) nearly all the increase was due to a sharp rise in number of full-time…

A request for narratives concerning their most effective and most ineffective professors was sent to 222 graduates from Rollins College (Florida). The narratives covered a period of 26 years, from 1964 through 1990. The responses suggest three dominant characteristics shared by ineffective professors: (1) lack of passion for their subject matter;…

When basic instructional design issues (goals, nature of the subject matter, and needs of the learner) are taken into consideration, different distance learning models may emerge as appropriate for different learning situations. A systematic approach to design and development of instruction allows for viewing the instructional process as a set of…

This report, eighth in a series, is designed to measure progress made by the nation toward the eight National Education Goals. A statement of the eight National Education Goals is followed by an Introduction which explains the indicators by which progress toward the Goals is measured. The Introduction also summarizes national and state findings…

This manual was prepared as a resource for administrators, faculty, university counselors, and independent school districts in developing and reviewing articulation agreements and tech prep programs. Chapter 1 is the introduction to the program. The chapters that follow are: (2) benefits derived from articulation; (3) types of articulation,…

A study investigated and compared the vocabulary learning strategies (VLSs) of five non-native English-speaking and six native English-speaking (NES) graduate students of theology in a core course. The students of English as a Second Language (ESL) were all native speakers of Cantonese or Mandarin Chinese. Specifically, the research explored (1)…

This study examined the education and career paths of female graduates of Murray State University (Kentucky) from 1930 through 1959, a time during which the institution was primarily a normal school focused on the preparation of teachers. Data from alumni records, analysis of questionnaires mailed to 40 randomly selected alumni, and interviews…

In March 1996, the Region XI Education Service Center, Fort Worth (Texas), was designated to continue a project implemented in 1990 by the Texas Education Agency to study the overall effectiveness of special education programs. The 1996 project was extended in 1997. This paper reports on the first of three newly planned study components, the…

Whether there is a difference in job satisfaction, self-assessed knowledge of teaching, and ratings of the quality of teacher education programs for graduates of elementary teacher education programs and secondary teacher education programs was studied using the Teacher Education Follow-up Scale of the National Database for Teacher Education…

This report provides Colorado state summary tables and district reports of graduation rates, dropout rates, and suspension and expulsion rates for the Class of 1998. The Colorado graduate rate for the Class of 1998 is 80.1%, an increase of 1.6% points from the rate reported for the Class of 1997. This graduation rate represents all Colorado…

Students from low socioeconomic status (SES) families who attend college generally are better off than their parents were, but are these students as well off as their high SES peers? The effect of attendance at an elite college on income, educational aspirations, and educational attainment for students from low SES versus high SES backgrounds is…

This document focuses on four community colleges--in Ireland, Denmark, California, and Mississippi--that play central economic development roles in their communities. Each has chosen to specialize in the skills and knowledge needed by local industry and the regional economy. Such technical colleges have emerged as key regional institutions, not…

This document presents elements of a symposium developed by the Alverno College, Wisconsin, research and evaluation staff on the extent to which educational research that is internally driven by institutionally defined purposes and questions is valid and useful to the educational research community as a way of addressing its larger questions about…