Summer-term projects are an important component of the federal Migrant Education Program (MEP), legislated under Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. In 1998, a nationally representative survey of MEP summer projects examined project characteristics, types of instructional and support services offered, and the projects' student…

The reasons teachers give for their assessment and grading practices and the factors that influence these practices were studied. Of 200 elementary and secondary mathematics and English teachers who volunteered to participate, researchers selected 60 teachers as representing maximum variation and then interviewed 24. Interview transcripts were…

This guide is a tool to assist educators in the development of high-quality work-based learning sites in New Hampshire as part of the state's school-to-work program. The guide is divided into two sections. The first section, Common Elements of Work-Based Learning, provides information and guidelines for addressing program design issues for all…

Noting the need for research to support and inform early childhood classroom practices, this paper describes action research and presents examples of studies prepared by preservice teachers or by certified teachers pursuing master's degrees in education. Action research, aligned with regularly used assessment strategies, is a method whereby…

The classroom practices of 20 teachers were studied during the field test of course 1 of Contemporary Mathematics in Context (CPMP), the high school mathematics curriculum developed by the Core-Plus Mathematics Project. In each year of the CPMP curriculum, mathematics is developed along the interwoven strands of algebra and functions, geometry and…

Applying the educational experiences of Arizona as a backdrop, this opinion paper discusses, quite broadly, reform of public education. In Arizona, academic standards have been judged the best in the nation by the Fordham Foundation; to measure academic progress, the state uses only the Stanford 9 test; there has been public school open enrollment…

This guide was developed to share successful Community Service Learning (CSL) instructional practices. It presents units that can be replicated and adapted for varying grade levels and curricular goals. The guide notes that as students use newly acquired academic knowledge and skills to address real issues in their communities, they often gain…

This manual presents recommended practices of the Council for Exceptional Children's Division for Early Childhood (DEC) for evaluating early intervention and early childhood special education programs. The DEC recommended practices are intended to complement previously established guidelines for developmentally appropriate practices. This guide…

Singapore is a multi-ethnic nation-state with the following ethnic groups: Chinese (76.8%), Malay (13.9%), Indian (7.9%), and Others (1.4%) such as Eurasians, Europeans, Arabs, Jews, and Japanese. A bilingual policy, which takes English as a lingua franca and Mandarin, Malay, and Tamil as mother tongue for each ethnic group, reflects this…

Increasing access to higher education for first-generation and low-income students was the primary motivation for the establishment of the federally funded TRIP programs. This study, using data from the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) obtained through data sharing among several urban institutions, compared TRIO-eligible students and…

Noting that the transition to school often sets the tone for the childs future school experiences, this toolbox identifies 33 proven practices currently used by schools districts and early childhood programs throughout Vermont to help children make a successful adjustment to school. Beginning with a list of guiding concepts on transition and…

Research has indicated a strong relationship between low peer status in childhood of children with and without and later problems in adolescence and adulthood and children with social deficits often show similar patterns of behavior. They may be withdrawn and hesitant to interact with peers, socially aloof and "unaware" of their peers, or they may…

This paper describes how Open Source philosophy, a movement that has developed in opposition to the proprietary software industry, has influenced educational practice in the pursuit of scholarly freedom and authentic learning activities for students and educators. This paper provides a brief overview of the Open Source movement, and describes…

A study was conducted to determine how the Career Preparation Assessment portfolio (CPA), tailored to be used in local school reform efforts, was implemented in 10 schools in 1998-99. The research was organized and reported using these four clusters of research questions: tailoring the CPA, implementation, student performance and assessment, and…

This report describes the development of indicators of classroom practice for monitoring and improving the quality of school reforms. The work entailed development of a rubric to rate key factors of classroom practice based on assignments and samples of student work. This approach was used to describe the intellectual challenge of class…