This paper outlines results of three informal surveys identifying barriers that Native Americans face when trying to complete a college degree. For the first survey, 22 Native American students who had dropped out of Northern Arizona University indicated that family influences and responsibilities, lack of financial resources, campus attitudes…

This monograph articulates eight key elements of a family-centered approach to policy and practice for children needing specialized health and developmental services. An introductory section reviews the development of the first edition of the monograph in 1987 and its widespread dissemination and acceptance since that time. Each of the following…

This digest discusses how well authentic mathematics assessment tests can be expected to meet the needs of mathematics instruction that focuses on conceptual insights and analytical skills. In the new mathematics curriculum, situational lessons or real-life problems attempt to include dimensions of thinking and reasoning, individual or small-group…

This report presents 28 conference papers, which represent different thematic and scientific perspectives designed to create an educating city theory. The translated titles of the articles include the following: (1) "Foreword" (P. Maragall); (2) "Introduction" (J. Trilla Bernet); (3) "Conceptual Itinerary Through the…

This publication contains summaries of six papers presented at a conference on community and policy strategies for Latinos in Massachusetts. Each summary follows an executive summary format by briefly describing the project or argument and highlighting and summarizing major findings or recommendations. The papers are as follows: (1) "An…

Colorado schools are undergoing a major transformation. Local communities are organizing around their schools and developing action plans to reach the state's educational goals. The 1992 report on K-12 education contains information about Colorado's efforts to implement four strategies: educational accountability; high expectations and standards…

Inconsistencies in the definition of transfer from two-year to four-year institutions and in the calculation of the transfer rate have given rise to incongruous findings. For example, one researcher in 1989 reported a transfer rate of less than 12% for the colleges in Illinois at the same time that the Chancellor's Office of the California…

This paper presents a study of two intellectually gifted students (ages 6 and 14) who have cerebral palsy and are unable to communicate orally. Results of participant observation, interviews, and document analysis revealed that: (1) gifted students who have cerebral palsy and do not speak exhibit indicators of cognitive ability that are similar to…

This publication, the third in a series of annual updates concerning young children and their families living in poverty in the United States, incorporates new statistical information from the 1992 March Supplement to the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey. The data provide an estimate of family poverty status for 1991 as measured by the…

The very high incidence of school dropouts throughout the nation is viewed as one of the major factors contributing to the failure of the American educational system, affecting not only the schools but the society as a whole. The social, political, and economic implications of the dropout problem are explored. The ability of the United States to…

In light of the National Education Goals of 1990, several arguments against any federally funded large-scale census approach to the assessment of college student learning in the United States are presented to clarify challenges to an objective of Goal 5, which specifies that "the proportion of college graduates who demonstrate advanced…

Issues in the misuse of standardized test scores are discussed. While information misuse is not a problem unique to testing, it is particularly prevalent. Information can be a source of power, and politically motivated uses of information explain part of the misuse of test scores. Other misuses have historical roots in the exaggerated claims of…

A Preparing Girls Project was incorporated into the Teenage Parent Program, which had been in operation in the Owensboro (Kentucky) City School System since August 1961. It was intended to produce more capable single teen mothers who would be more likely to finish their education and join the labor force. The assessment instruments were reworked…

A multi-year program, Project Homeroom, designed to introduce home-based computing to a select group of high school teachers, students, and their parents was recently conducted in three Chicago-area (Illinois) schools. The Technological Innovations in Educational Research Laboratory at Illinois State University (Normal) evaluated this program.…

This study investigated the effects of cocaine addiction on mothers' ability to care for their children. The population interviewed included 25 cocaine-addicted mothers in a drug treatment center and a comparison group of 25 mothers of children in a Head Start program. Each mother was questioned about: (1) her pregnancy with a specific child…