This publication presents performance data and the concomitant standards of performance that form the basis of school improvement in Maryland. The Data-Based Areas section of this report describes essential tools for measuring how well schools, school systems, and the state are preparing every student for higher education and successful careers…

The Systematic Curriculum and Instructional Development (SCID) model provides a tested procedure for developing high-quality, low-cost competency-based education and tech prep curriculum and instructional materials. It consists of 5 phases--analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation--and 23 components. The analysis phase…

Contributed by English teachers across the United States, the activities contained in this booklet are intended to promote the effective teaching of literature and writing. Teaching strategies offered in the first section of the booklet are designed to stimulate language exploration and include activities in which students choose their favorite…

The purposes of this U.S. Department of Education project were twofold: (1) to explore the process for obtaining materials, documents, and publications from abroad that were "fugitive" in nature (i.e., documents not typically found in the ERIC system or library collections); and (2) to develop a database of both the materials collected and the…

A program designed to provide input from young people to local governments in California, and to expand participation of young people and families in community affairs, is presented in this proposal. Funding is sought in the proposal to develop materials to implement a pilot program in San Diego County (CA) that would involve more than 100,000…

A unique training program in high tech obstetrical, neonatal, and pediatric nursing care areas was designed to be offered on site at Orlando (Florida) Regional Medical/Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children and Women. The training program offered 16 different courses to 355 employees over the 18-month period of the project. A needs assessment was…

Although the Minnesota Business Partnership is generally pleased with the success of its school choice initiatives, it realized that more must be done to improve educational quality. Concentrating on learning readiness, this report discusses the role of education in a healthy society, describes the condition of education in Minnesota, and offers…

The Student Opinion Survey was sent to a random sample of 2,600 Open University (OU) students who had gained at least two credits and were studying during 1984. The response rate was 84 percent. Responses to open-ended questions on about one-third of those questionnaires were analyzed to determine the significant phenomena in students' experiences…

A national review of TAFE (Technical and Further Education) teacher preparation and development identified the skills and competencies that will be required of full-time TAFE teachers in the 1990s and those held by present full-time TAFE teachers in Australia. A questionnaire received 594 responses (a 50% response rate). Teachers reported their…

The result of a collaborative effort to meet the needs of California educators in middle-grades reform, this volume provides access to the best ideas in research and practice, and support for local improvement efforts. The casebook format tells the strategies, problems, and diverse actions of educators focusing on the "how" of leading a…

This book describes some of the research undertaken during the Teacher Education Project, a four and one-half year research and development project undertaken by the Universities of Nottingham, Leicester, and Exeter (Great Britain) and funded by the Department of Education and Science. This project involved observation of over 1,000 lessons and…

A synthesis of current research, theory, and professional opinion on how children learn to write, this report begins with a brief introduction followed by a discussion of writing readiness that suggests children's eagerness to learn to write. The third chapter examines children's use of writing to extend the functions of speech, drawing, and play,…

The Public School Education Act of 1975 (Chapter 212) set forth certain responsibilities of the New Jersey State Department of Education. Among them is the monitoring of local school districts to assure that the necessary elements are in place to "provide to all children . . . the educational opportunity which will prepare them to function…

A project was undertaken to develop an inservice staff development program for vocational teachers working with disadvantaged students in local school districts in Pennsylvania. The focus of the inservice activity was on the improvement of instructional approaches such as individualized instruction, teaching and reteaching, small group…

A four-day workshop designed to acquaint faculty members with teaching strategies for combining basic reading skills in English composition was evaluated as very effective by the seven workshop participants. The evaluation results indicated that interdisciplinary staff development seminars can be beneficial to faculty from varied content areas.…