This book examines how five schools in New York City have developed "authentic," performance-based assessments of students' learning, and how this work has interacted with and influenced the teaching and learning experiences students encounter in school. Authentic assessment attempts to take the measure of a child's real work over time…

This paper reports on part of a larger research study on the reasons for the shortage of minority students entering colleges of education and the teaching profession. Interviews were conducted with 140 teachers of color in three urban school districts: Cincinnati (Ohio), Seattle (Washington), and Long Beach (California). The focus of this part of…

This study was designed to determine if a 1-year structured social skills program would improve academic and interpersonal skills and attendance in young African American males. On a pre-assessment inventory, study participants, 33 fourth grade boys, demonstrated a variety of poor social skills such as poor attendance, poor interpersonal skills,…

Students should be welcomed as active participants in parent-teacher conferences, facilitating their conferences and sharing their academic progress with their parents and teachers. Concerned with the shortcomings of the traditional conference model, faculty at a Kansas City, Missouri, middle school developed a student-led conference model…

To determine factors affecting new students in their first semester, a study was conducted at Diablo Valley College, in California, to draw a profile and track 4,251 students who applied or were identified as new in fall 1992. Percentage distributions were calculated for the sample and for the sub-groups who applied only, completed testing only,…

A practicum program was developed and implemented to increase parental involvement, teach parents how to help their children, reverse parents' and students' negative attitudes toward mathematics, and enhance mathematics performance of at-risk seventh-grade students. The objectives of the program were to increase parental involvement by 40 percent,…

This digest summarizes studies that provide evidence that youth with multiple and severe risks in their lives can develop into confident and competent adults, and discusses the critical role schools can play in this process of development. Resilience is the term used to describe a set of qualities that foster a process of successful adaptation and…

This report describes a program for increasing student motivation as demonstrated by a higher percentage of completed homework and maximum voluntary class participation. The targeted population consisted of third, sixth, and tenth grade students from low to middle income families located in northern Illinois. The problem of low motivation was…

Focusing on predictors of academic success may help in the design of effective educational interventions. This study explores the enhancement of education for at-risk minority students by considering educationally resilient students and the classroom learning environment. Data was collected from six middle schools in a multi-ethnic school district…

Educators, particularly those in special education, are recognizing the importance of providing students with instruction in problem-reducing and problem-avoiding prosocial and affective skills. This book presents a prosocial skills approach designed for use with handicapped and non-handicapped elementary school students. The teaching of positive…

This theme issue includes four articles that focus on teaching and learning strategies to benefit all students, including limited-English-proficient, minority, economically disadvantaged, and at-risk students. "Would You Read Me a Story?: In Search of Reading Strategies That Work for the Early Childhood Classroom" (Hilaria Bauer)…

This digest summarizes studies that provide evidence that youth with multiple and severe risks in their lives can develop into confident and competent adults; and discusses the critical role schools can play in this process of development. Resilience is the term used to describe a set of qualities that foster a process of successful adaptation and…

The goals of this book are to provide a foundation for using the Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach (CALLA), a list of practical guidelines for designing a CALLA program, and suggestions for implementing CALLA in major subject areas of the curriculum. Four conditions for improving the education of language minority students are…

This book provides practical information and advice designed to help family day care providers solve problems they confront in their daily work with children. The book is organized into 7 sections. Part I, "Effective Ways to Change Unacceptable Behavior," offers recommendations about discipline, alternatives to punishment, modeling, and…

This document completes a series of four monographs that comprise a framework for describing children's development through the school years. Each monograph incorporates insights gained through research and practice. As a resource designed primarily for teachers, administrators, and curriculum designers, the document looks at the whole child as a…