The efforts of two pilot accelerated schools serving poor and minority students are evaluated in this report. A program goal was to integrate improvement at the school and community levels. Section 1 briefly describes the attitudes and meanings predominant in schools serving poor and minority youth. The focus on the individual, a narrow view of…

An study was conducted in an adult education center and a community school in Scotland to determine the perceived effectiveness of a range of methods for teaching English. Data were collected through semistructured interviews, observation of teaching, course documents, and informal conversations with 47 students and 2 teachers. Findings included…

Correlations between the California Critical Thinking Skills Test--College Level (CCTST) and student-related factors regarded as indicators of academic ability and success were studied in a series of four experiments investigating whether the CCTST measures improvement in critical thinking (CT) skills. During 1989-90, data were collected on 1,196…

This report discusses what should be taught in history and social sciences courses, and how the material should be taught. Differing views of educational leaders as well as results of recent research and studies are summarized. The following propositions are offered as stimulators of inquiry and as tentative guides to practice: (1) the greatest…

An overview of the current status of the videodisc industry and observations on future directions for videodisc technology are presented in this paper. Information was drawn from interviews with presenters at the 1984 Nebraska Videodisc Symposium and the February 1985 Society for Applied Technology Conference, discussions with hardware…

Results of a questionnaire on instructional leadership administered to elementary school principals and teachers in California confirmed literature findings that instructional leadership behavior significantly influences student achievement. The study sought to determine (1) the 29 most important instructional leadership behaviors through…

A Colorado school district has evolved a plan for continuous updating of curriculum that is broad in scope, involves the external environment, and integrates the efforts of citizens and educators. The first step of the external audit process involves the development of goals and an overview of a state-of-the-art program by the program manager and…

A study evaluated the comparative training effectiveness of three language instruction methods: (1) suggestopedia, (2) the standard methodology used at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center, a functional skill-building approach, and (3) a flexible-scheduling version of the standard methodology, with pacing based on group…

This evaluation report summarizes the impact of the Hartford Effective Schools Initiative (HESI) during the 1984-85 implementation year and is based on: (1) interview and observation data gathered during two day visits to each of the three schools in April and May and compared with similar data collected from the same teachers, facilitators,…

A 12-week study of two groups of 14 college freshmen music majors was conducted to determine which group demonstrated greater achievement in learning auditory discrimination using computer-assisted instruction (CAI). The method employed was a pre-/post-test experimental design using subjects randomly assigned to a control group or an experimental…

Dolphin is a computer-assisted instruction system used to teach and reinforce skills in reading, language arts, and mathematics. An evaluation of this system was conducted to provide information to TSC Division of Houghton Mifflin regarding its effectiveness and possible modifications to the system. The general design of the evaluation was to…

Based on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 1984 assessment of the writing achievement of American school children, this report presents national and demographic subgroup achievement results for students in grades four, eight, and eleven, and discusses students' attitudes toward writing and instruction. The first chapter…

This study attempted to evaluate the efficacy of time delay in increasing the academic response accuracy of moderately retarded adolescents. The time delay technique provided a means by which "cognitive organizers" could be taught to the students to mediate their behavior and improve academic performance. A modified multiple baseline…

Forty percent of the families in Latin America have an income which does not provide essential necessities. Two-thirds of poor families live in the countryside, while the remainder reside in urban slums. The key variable in explaining poverty is education. Without education these families have irregular, unstable, and low paying employment…

This study compared the effectiveness of two computer-based techniques for improving word recognition automaticity in children with mild reading difficulties. One of the techniques provided practice in identifying individual words out of context, while the other technique, referred to as repeated reading, provided practice reading specific words…