A two-year federally funded project was designed to improve library service to the Bowen Children's Center, a State Department of Mental Health facility for the mentally retarded in Harrisburg, Illinois. The majority of the residents are 14 to 20 years of age. Visual and sound filmstrips, games, puzzles, visual and tactile materials, cassettes,…

This document reports on a demonstration project using older volunteers in community service in one area of a large city. Questions for which answers were sought include: (1) What type of activities might older adults be given that would be both meaningful and useful; (2) What kinds of community agencies would use the services of volunteers most…

This is the final report of the New Nursery School Project, a program for 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old educationally disadvantaged children. Objectives of the program are to help children develop a positive self-image, increase sensory and perceptual acuity, improve language skills, form certain concepts essential for later learning, and develop the…

This final report is an evaluation of Project Inspire, a program designed to create within the school setting a positive framework and atmosphere for learning through efforts directed toward students and teachers. Conducted at the Francis Junior High School in North-West Washington, D.C., Project Inspire aimed to improve academic achievement,…

Civic engagement is moving to the forefront of higher education discussions as universities seek ways not only to intensify students' learning experiences but also to forge stronger links with the communities they are meant to serve. Within the University of California system, there are already multiple examples of service-learning,…

High parental involvement has been linked to increases in student achievement and engagement in school (Moore, 1992; Swap, 1993; Henderson and Berla, 1994; Fuller and Olsen, 1998). Schools with large populations of low-income students or students of color often have difficulties in engaging a majority of parents due to a variety of social and…

A french language version of a training manual that presents guidelines for planning and conducting a project design and management (PDM) workshop to teach Peace Corps volunteers to involve local community members in the process of using participatory analysis tools and planning and implementing projects meeting local desires and needs. The first…

Many volunteer literacy tutors in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, have not completed their 1-year tutoring commitment. Consequently, an action research project was undertaken to determine the causes of the high tutor turnover and to identify ways of improving the tutor retention rate. All tutors involved in the program from 1998 onward were asked…

This DeKalb County Public Library family literacy project final performance report begins with a section that provides quantitative data on the project. The next section compares actual accomplishments to the following project objectives for fiscal year 1993: (1) to update eight existing literacy collections in branch libraries by the addition of…

Presents a paper delivered in Poland in 1989 and in five additional Eastern European cities in 1990. Defines democracy and suggests ways to teach about democratic government. Explores education's role in a democracy. Encourages student participation in student government, classroom discussion, community service, and research projects to give them…

The Peace Corps volunteer language training materials for the Moroccan language Tashelheet are designed for group, individual, or self-instruction. An introductory section gives the learner an overview of language characteristics, the materials, and their design. The main section of the materials is divided into two parts. The first contains 16…

This manual is designed for the Russian language training of Peace Corps volunteers serving in Turkmenistan, and focuses on daily communication skills needed in that context. It consists of nine topical lessons, each containing several brief dialogues targeting specific language competencies, and exercises. Text is entirely in Russian, except for…

This guide, entirely in French, is designed for language training of Peace Corps workers in Tunisia and reflects daily communication needs in that context. It consists of 25 theme-based lessons, each containing a situational dialogue, vocabulary, and exercises. The exercises focus more on new vocabulary and its usage than on systematic grammar…

The challenge of building assessment into the curriculum has led the author to closely examine the expected outcomes of her teaching. Her experiences with students participating in projects that involved helping needy people in the community demonstrate the difficulty and advantages of implementing authentic assessment. The middle school students…

The manual is designed as a reference on second language teaching and curriculum development for Peace Corps language trainers and language training coordinators. The first section, on language learning theory, introduces competency-based curriculum, describes the natural approach to language learning (the approach used throughout the manual),…