Gender beliefs affect adolescents' sexual motivations, perceptions, and actions (Moss, 1994) and can endanger sexual health (Haffner, 1998). We believe that teaching youth about gender norms will increase the efficacy of HIV/STD preventive interventions. We were funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to develop and…

The purpose of "Focus" is to provide coverage of poverty-related research, events, and issues, and to acquaint a large audience with the work of the Institute for Research on Poverty by means of short essays on selected pieces of research. This issue contains the following articles: (1) Changing poverty and changing antipoverty policies…

The "No Child Left Behind" Act mandated the need for research-based interventions to increase and to improve learning and achievement for all youngsters. Research in computer-based instruction and intervention for learning basic skills and related achievements in content area subjects has documented the need for controlled investigations…

National Technical Assistance and Dissemination Center for Children and Youth who are Deaf-Blind and its predecessors, The National Technical Assistance Consortium for Children and Youth who are Deaf-Blind (NTAC) and the Teaching Research Assistance to Children Experiencing Sensory Impairments (TRACES) project, has been conducting an annual…

This study examined barriers to utilizing services for children, birth to age 3, through in-depth individual and group interviews with 70 parents and direct service personnel of provider agencies in seven Washington counties. Part 1 of this report offers examples and discussion of the difficulties parents have accessing services and how localities…

The 18th annual report to Congress on the implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) describes the Department of Education's efforts to work with the States to maximize results for students with disabilities and to assess the impact and effectiveness of the Act. Current and historical service patterns for school-age…

Shortened versions of papers from a symposium on literacy and disabilities are provided. Paper topics include: (1) a literacy bill of rights; (2) balanced instruction for diverse learners; (3) historical trends in vocabulary selection; (4) inclusive/collaborative service delivery for language/learning disabled school-age children; (5) literacy,…

This book addresses the educational needs of children who are pervasively developmentally delayed (PDD), especially those exposed to drugs prenatally and those with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, autism, hyperactivity, Aspberger Syndrome, other heath impairments, attention deficit disorder, and childhood aphasia. The first chapter recommends the use of…

This set of papers deals with the integration and maintenance of disabled children in regular Australian classrooms and the mounting pressure on teachers to provide effective instruction for an increasingly broad range of ability groups. Part I is concerned with theoretical issues and research on the integration of children with special learning…

In this age of greater accountability, local school districts within the USA increasingly use summer school programs as an intervention service to provide students who have failed to meet classroom, district, or state performance requirements with the opportunity to "catch up." Although such programs attempt to provide varying types of…

This paper examines school policies relating to alcohol and illicit drug use, and their associations with the prevalence of alcohol and marijuana use among students. Both "punitive" and "supportive" policies are examined. Other studies examining punitive disciplinary measures--such as close monitoring of student behavior, having various security…

This report summarizes evaluation results for AISD's federally-funded Title IV Safe and Drug-free Schools and Communities program activities for the 2002-2003 school year.

The research topics addressed in this study include the following: (1) reasons dropouts who immediately pursued a General Educational Development (GED) did not complete high school; (2) characteristics of the schools those GED examinees last attended; (3) differences in the reasons for not completing school by school characteristics; and (4)…

This report summarizes the 2004-2005 program evaluation results of AISD's GEAR UP program, a program that encourages and supports students' rates of high school graduation and post-secondary enrollment.

In the Infant Development, Environment and Lifestyle (IDEAL) Study of methamphetamine (MA) effects on children, the authors screened approximately 27,000 newborn infants for MA exposure, and from that pool derived a sample of in utero MA-exposed children as well as a comparison group matched for other drug use and other factors. IDEAL measures…