This paper presents an overview of the impact of the Latin American external debt on education in all the countries of the region. The dynamics of the adjustment programs that countries have undertaken in response to the "debt crisis" are examined featuring Costa Rica. The adjustment programs changed the climate in which educational…

Testing and assessment that are "more authentic" (performance-based or alternative) represent the most pressing issue in education today. Some of the major criticisms leveled at standardized testing are examined, and the advantages and disadvantages of more authentic assessment are reviewed. A general direction for integrating traditional and…

This paper explores the impact of single-parent families on adolescent females and their aspirations for the future. The study, taking data from the national longitudinal High School and Beyond (HSB) study, uses a stratified weighted national sample of 4,573 black and white high school senior females in the class of 1980. The sample includes girls…

This paper describes a Child Care/Parenting Project established to meet the needs of teen parents and parents-to-be in 19 area schools served by the West Campus Technical Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The presence of a licensed child care facility on the vocational high school campus helped to expand and improve the vocational education…

These keynote remarks review some of the origins of Title XII of the Foreign Assistance Act. This legislation, whose goal is to conquer famine and malnutrition worldwide, was signed into law by President Ford in 1975. Senator Hubert Humphrey's address at the 1977 Famine Prevention Symposium in Washington, DC, is recounted with emphasis on his…

This book discusses several types of parent-teacher conferences and issues relevant to parent-teacher conferences in 10 chapters. Chapter 1 outlines a working model for successful parent-teacher conferences. Research on parent attitudes and relationships with teachers is summarized in chapter 2. Chapter 3 discusses communication topics, including…

In fall, 1991, La Frontera Center, the Tucson Council for Alcohol and Drug Dependence, and the Community Organization for Drug Abuse Control were funded to carry out an educational program to reduce alcohol and other drug abuse in the Tucson, Arizona area. The resulting project, Pasos Adelante (Steps Forward), is an early intervention…

This study examined concurrent and long-term effects of parents' teaching strategies on their children's cognitive styles. A total of 83 mothers and 74 fathers helped their 4-year-old sons or daughters with 4 problem-solving tasks. The interactions between parents and children were observed and evaluated. Two measures of field…

This publication describes several different teaching strategies employed to enhance students' understanding of mathematics, such as working in cooperative learning groups, giving presentations based on problems that were solved, and writing about solutions that were found. This innovative approach to teaching mathematics resulted in questioning…

This manual is designed to help agricultural education students and teachers to apply scientific facts and principles to problem-solving procedures in determining nutritious and economical livestock feeding programs. The manual provides applied scientific activities in biological science and chemistry, mathematics, and communication skills. It…

JOBS (Job Opportunities in the Business Sector) implementation faces major challenges in every state, but two issues are of particular importance in the South: the impact of low welfare benefits and the impact of low educational levels among Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) recipients. The impact of low welfare benefits shows up…

Some potential relative advantages of performance assessment strategies over paper-and-pencil tests using short-answer and multiple-choice item formats are discussed. The major advantage of the multiple-choice test is its ability to sample a large number of learning outcomes efficiently. However, performance assessments are increasingly being used…

Both humanity and nature have suffered greatly from human insensitivity. Not only are the natural resources of the earth being depleted and its air, land and water polluted, the financial resources of humanity are being wasted on destructive expenditures. The "Our Only Earth" series is an integrated science, language arts, and social studies…

To examine the effectiveness of the case method in teacher education, 54 students enrolled in an introductory foundations course were taught together in a weekly lecture and randomly assigned to weekly section meetings taught either by the case method or by discussion of readings. As measured by responses to a problematic situation on the mid-term…

Previous studies of the development of correlational reasoning have focused on the interpretation of relatively simple data sets contained in 2 X 2 tables. In contrast, this study examined age trends in subjects' responses to problems involving more than two continuous variables. The research is part of a multi-year project to conceptualize…