An analysis of school choice programs is presented. The review is organized around the following topics: common characteristics of programs, variations, advantages and disadvantages, the relationship between choice and student achievement, and state role. A conclusion is that policy decisions will have to be based on factors other than effects of…

The New York State Board of Regents has established that state educational policy and practices must help limited-English-proficient (LEP) students enter the English mainstream as quickly as possible, while regarding the first language as an important cultural asset and a useful academic tool. These policies state the following: (1) all students…

This paper profiles nine model programs for supporting families who care for a child with a severe illness or one or more disabilities and discusses current trends as they emerged from interviews with key persons in the field. Core components examined include self-help, advocacy, parent education, respite care, family-centered case management, and…

The Bilingual Education Academic/Career Outreach for Newcomers Program (Project BEACON) completed its fourth year. The goals of Project BEACON are to facilitate acquisition of English proficiency, develop native language literacy skills, and provide instruction in bilingual and English content area/vocational classes. The project served 753…

Project GO-FOR-IT (Great Opportunities for Optional Resources to Improve the Talents of Gifted Bilingual High School Students) provided supplemental instruction in English as a Second Language (ESL), content area subjects, and Native Language Arts (NLA) to 259 gifted, limited English proficient (LEP) students at three Brooklyn (New York) high…

Focusing on reinforcing students' reading skills at home, this pamphlet emphasizes that parents should read aloud to children, talk to them about their experiences, take them places, limit their television-watching, and take an interest in their reading progress. Children's success and interest in reading is said to depend largely on whether they…

Students drop out of school for a wide variety of reasons. Programs to discourage dropping out must therefore accommodate the actual needs of individual students rather than aim at the assumed needs of the "typical dropout." This document reviews school policies and programs that could affect dropout tendencies positively. Among these…

In 1972-73 Grant Elementary School began the first year-round school in Utah. The program involves changes for teachers and students, and increases both in the number of school days and teachers' salaries. Each teacher has one-fourth more students than the average classroom in the community; each teacher has one-fourth more days (45) in which to…

Building a partnership between school and home can be an effective way of providing for a better education for children. This booklet is concerned with educating students in mathematics and science. The booklet stresses the use of calculators and computers throughout courses from kindergarten to 12th grade, especially in mathematics and science…

Academic socialization is a process whereby students acquire the competencies necessary to function in the classroom. Academic competencies include not only a high level of proficiency in English, critical thinking skills, and the ability to control the relationship between language and logic, but also social and cultural skills. Although academic…

An ethnographic study of the intake process involving the formal assessment, placement, and educational programming of 12 Hispanic deaf/hearing impaired children, aged 3-8, in both a private school for the deaf and the New York City public schools, was conducted over a 2-year period (1984-1986). Participant observation, interviewing, and…

This report describes a self-contained, problem-centered workshop designed to help parents, especially undereducated parents, learn how to facilitate the elementary school success of their children. The workshop is predicated on the belief that parents themselves are able to identify the educational needs and help to solve the school-related…

Two studies explored parental expectations and home computer practice in families with special needs children. The first involved 48 parents of special needs children, aged 3.6 to 14.5 years. On a coping instrument, a mood scale, and a difficulties and expectations scale, parents indicated that important concerns for their children included:…

Educating black male youth, especially those in the New Orleans (Louisiana) Public Schools, is a moral and civic imperative. Though black males represented 43 percent of the public school population in the 1986-87 academic year, they accounted for 57.5 percent of the non-promotions, 65 percent of the suspensions, 80 percent of the expulsions, and…

This report presents a summary of the State of South Carolina's utilization of Elementary and Secondary Education Act Title I and Education Consolidation and Improvement Act Chapter 1 funds as a resource for educationally disadvantaged students during the past 5 years, and identifies those projects exhibiting the greatest gains in terms of student…