Small towns and rural places face numerous barriers to development. In response, the four Regional Rural Development Centers serve as regional and national networks to catalyze, initiate, facilitate, and evaluate research and educational programs that have potential to improve rural economic and social well-being. Such programs focus on developing…

The middle school concept provides for establishing schools which link the early adolescent years between elementary school and high school. This guide provides practical tips and techniques as a means for middle school teachers to meet the demands of the middle school classroom and to learn about this age group. In addition, it helps explore…

This study examines whether students' constant focus on meeting teacher expectations might cause students to see themselves as producers of products for someone else, rather than as learners. Four researchers asked elementary, middle, high school, and university students to describe their experience of classrooms, listening for patterns that would…

As a practicum project, a developmentally appropriate training model was designed and implemented in a day care facility with 6 staff members, serving 40 children. Following documentation of the problem areas that inhibited application of developmentally appropriate practices in the particular day care setting, appropriate actions were…

This digest summarizes studies that provide evidence that youth with multiple and severe risks in their lives can develop into confident and competent adults, and discusses the critical role schools can play in this process of development. Resilience is the term used to describe a set of qualities that foster a process of successful adaptation and…

Children experience a wide variety of life experiences that are stressful to them. Children's stories and drawings allow adults to understand children's perceptions and reactions, and picture books enable children to experience stressors safely in a supportive setting. This paper describes a storytelling and drawing intervention based on art…

This report describes a program for increasing student motivation as demonstrated by a higher percentage of completed homework and maximum voluntary class participation. The targeted population consisted of third, sixth, and tenth grade students from low to middle income families located in northern Illinois. The problem of low motivation was…

Through a multiple case study design the influence of teachers beliefs on literacy instruction for at-risk first graders was examined and described. The volunteer sample of five female teachers who taught in different high risk schools within the same school district participated in the study. Five issues guided the study: teachers beliefs about…

Focusing on predictors of academic success may help in the design of effective educational interventions. This study explores the enhancement of education for at-risk minority students by considering educationally resilient students and the classroom learning environment. Data was collected from six middle schools in a multi-ethnic school district…

This review of the literature examines barriers to building community and fostering involvement among female undergraduate and graduate students in engineering. It also explores a comprehensive set of strategic initiatives that can be taken by women in engineering advocates to build a sense of community and mutual support among students. Barriers…

This monograph reviews empirical studies on various aspects of higher education relating to the effectiveness of instruction in regard to four areas: curriculum, instruction, campus psychological climate, and academic advising. After an introduction, the first section describes the development of critical skills, how these skills develop, and the…

When children's own strategies for solving mathematical problems are not connected to the way mathematics is taught in school, students fail to make sense of mathematics instruction and begin to "fail." This chapter adopts the position that student understanding of worthwhile mathematical content is the essential goal of mathematics education, and…

This document, which is intended for adult educators, contains information learned during the course of pilot workshops on the connections between violence and women's education that were held in four areas of Canada (Pine Grove, Montreal, Toronto, and the Yukon). First, the pilot workshops and development/use of the document are discussed, and…

These 4 issues of the English Leadership Quarterly comprise volume 17, published during 1995. Articles in number 1 deal with multicultural and multiethnic literature, and are, as follows: "Guidelines for Selecting European Ethnic Literature for Interdisciplinary Courses" (Sandra Stotsky); "Striving for Kinship within Diverse…

This manual provides assistance for Head Start managers and caregivers in providing support for substance-abusing families. The manual builds on the Head Start Substance Abuse Circle of Capacities continuum, which addresses areas of: (1) staff preparation and support; (2) prevention and family wellness; (3) early intervention, referral, and…