Although family child care has the potential to offer young children individual attention and customized, educational programs to help them thrive, the quality of these programs is dependent upon a workforce that is at the bottom of the occupational status and pay hierarchy. This report examines ways to promote high quality in family child care…

This instrument is designed to help school administrators assess the level of implementation of the essential elements of the Instructional Support Teams (IST) process in Pennsylvania. The instrument is a rating sheet, or checklist, on which the presence and absence of components of the IST process are noted. The number of features in place is…

New data compiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation make it clear that the peak hours for violent juvenile crime are 3:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Nearly half of all juvenile crime takes place between 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m., and nearly two-thirds of all violent juvenile crime takes place between 2:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. In addition, in 57% of…

Secondary school administrators must carefully consider the ramifications of a proposed alternative scheduling plan before proceeding with implementation. The first article in this newsletter presents findings from a study that compared data from two groups of schools (one group with a 4 X 4 block plan and the other with a trimester plan) to data…

Two basic approaches to career education (CE) are available to school systems in Arkansas: a "stand-alone" approach and an "integrated" CE program. The stand-alone course, which is called career orientation (CO), is required for all junior high schools. It consists of four major units: self-awareness; career awareness;…

This document presents the 1997 Mississippi summer library program for children. Highlights include: planning a summer library program; promotion and tips on writing publicity releases; radio spots (samples); press releases (samples); a sample letter to parents; a general bibliography; selected promotional resources; supply sources; recipes. Also…

This paper reports on the findings of Year 1 of a three-year project, funded by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, to study the implementation of the First Steps Literacy Program in a New England urban school district. The study is informed by theories of literacy that view reading, writing, and language as integrated components…

A study was conducted to determine factors that foster or impede the development of distance education (DE) programs. A review of the literature related to transformation in higher education, technology and learning, and DE was conducted and the history of DE in the Washington State Community and Technical College System was reviewed. In addition,…

This study attempts to identify points of intersection between two layers of educational reform by analyzing how the goals of the program "Children Achieving" overlap with those of the federal Title I schoolwide programs in the Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) School District. Children Achieving was a district-wide comprehensive restructuring…

This document lists the national quality standards for volunteer literacy programs that were developed by Laubach Literacy Action in a 2-year project that began in 1994 and involved the following activities: extensive review of existing literacy quality standards and guidelines; analysis of previous national efforts to identify the elements…

This book describes Boysville's 5-year effort to design, implement, and evaluate an agency-based computerized management information, program evaluation, and clinical decision-making system, BOMIS (Boysville Management Information System). The goal of BOMIS is the integration of the four intervention programs, through the collection, analysis,…

Presenting an in-depth look at alternatives to ability grouping in elementary school reading and language arts programs, this book presents eight essays that offer a variety of practical suggestions and resources for educators interested in moving to or enhancing their use of flexible grouping for reading instruction. The book describes programs…

This Digest examines the key issues surrounding the implementation of schoolwide reform. It discusses how whole-school reform results can be dramatic but that schools must take special care with implementing the reforms. It examines the importance of outside assistance in reform efforts and reports that design teams are typically used by schools…

This book describes how it felt to run the Bridges to Work demonstration, as told by five project directors at the five organizations. Information on the project directors and an introduction appear first. Section 2 reports that the project directors still largely agree with the strategy of reverse commuting--identifying job-ready adults in…

This paper summarizes lessons learned from the creation and operation of a National Science Foundation-sponsored Engineering Education Coalition, the Southeastern University and College Coalition for Engineering Education (SUCCEED). Specific operational issues addressed include planning, organization, leadership, operations, support, participant…