This article describes an effort to create a teacher learning community in which university and local school teachers worked together to improve the teaching of writing at elementary and secondary levels. I describe how a university's National Writing Project (NWP) engaged in developing a cadre of selected teachers to share understandings about…

This occasional paper is a summary of what the staff of the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (NCSALL) Dissemination Initiative learned about how to connect research, policy and practice in ways that promote evidence-based practice in the field of adult learning and literacy. NCSALL Tools for connecting practice, policy,…

This report describes the "Year of the Lifetime Reader" campaign, which focused on family literacy. The report has a threefold purpose: to review the events, projects, and activities that took place across the country; to stimulate thinking on how to make future campaigns even more effective; and to make available the ideas that have…

The utility of modified item response theory (IRT) models in small sample testing applications was studied. The modified IRT models were modifications of the one- and two-parameter logistic models. One-, two-, and three-parameter models were also studied. Test data were from 4 years of a national certification examination for persons desiring…

This manual endorses and adopts the sector-assessment approach for planning and managing the allocation of educational resources. Chapter 1 presents the manual's goals. Chapter 2 describes the manual's content and information sources, explains the term "sector assessment," identifies the groups that benefit from recommendations made by…

America is faced with making systemic changes in education that will insure continuance of her leadership role in the 21st century. In an effort to make changes toward the aforementioned reforms, the federal government has charged 16 participating Federal agencies with achieving goals that will ensure that all students learn to use their minds…

This brochure argues for consistency in how disabilities are named in national data collection programs. It notes that currently many students with disabilities are excluded from national data collection programs and, when they are included, there is extreme variability in the disability classification assigned to them. Nineteen different national…

Several programs have been instituted in China over the past 30 years in order to slow the birth rate. The population, set at 1,008,175,288 people by a 1982 census, is by far the largest of any nation. A 10-year family planning program, begun in 1957, caused the birth rate to drop considerably through the mid-1960's. In 1971, "wan xi…

This preliminary report describes the work to date of the Task Group on Computer/Communication protocols for Bibliographic Data Interchange, which was formed in 1980 to develop a set of protocol standards to facilitate communication between heterogeneous library and information systems within the framework of Open Systems Interconnection (OSI). A…

While costs are increasing and revenues from endowment earnings and gifts decreasing, private and public institutions are being forced to cut spending. The author outlines a national program of competitive fellowship awards designed to help meet these problems and to sustain the quality of higher education. (Editor/JT)

Noting the major objectives of India's Fifth Five Year Plan, including emphasis on cultivation of moral and spiritual values in students, the author discusses India's situation in comparison with the development of other nations and analyzes the question of when or how individual enlightenment affects large groups of people or the development of a…

The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bristol discusses a series of speeches by the Minister of State designed to initiate a "great debate" about British universities. Issues include "more graduates in desirable subjects for less money," manpower planning, the right balance between universities and polytechnics,…

Proposes design and implementation strategies for a national teacher education program (preservice, inservice, and on-the-job) to prepare primary social studies teachers for Nigeria's Universal (Free) Primary Education (UPE) Scheme which emphasizes teacher knowledge, methods and student evaluation, and materials development. Organization,…

Deals with some of the lessons considered to have been learned from the studies of licensing and certification of the Center for Occupational and Professional Assessment, ETS, New Jersey, when one considers what educators can learn from testing in and for noneducational occupations. (Author/JM)

Examines the principle that the rules of language to be applied in a given situation will depend on the territory or on the linguistic status of the person or persons concerned. The principles are considered in broad contexts, formally and practically, and criteria that may influence the choice of one over another is looked at. (SCC)