The Appalachian Regional Commission/International Business Machine Writing to Read (WTR) program was implemented over a 3-year period in 55 selected rural schools of Appalachia. WTR is a computer-based instructional system designed to develop the writing and reading skills of kindergarten and first-grade students in a lab setting. Project schools…

The eighth grade unit in Ukrainian as a second language, the second in a series, is designed as a teacher's guide for use in Alberta secondary schools. The unit duration is approximately 15-20 lessons. An introductory section outlines the structures and vocabulary used in the unit and contains a dialogue in Ukrainian. A series of exercises…

This study reports on the characteristics of selected public libraries into which adult literacy programs have become relatively integrated. The study addresses the following issues (1) the form of leadership in those libraries in which literacy programming has become integrated; (2) the organizational and staff support that promotes library…

The North Carolina Open-Ended Assessment for grades 5 and 8 emphasizes higher-level thinking skills. Test items commonly require the integration of knowledge and skills from more than one curricular area. Beginning in 1996-97, the North Carolina Open-Ended Assessment was administered to students in grades 5 and 8 for the second time. Because it is…

Success for All (SFA), a schoolwide research-based reform model developed by Robert Slavin and his associates at Johns Hopkins University, is based on the premise that all students can and must succeed in the early grades. The program targets students in the lower grades, providing them with intensive instruction in language arts. This effort is…

This essay explores the roots and implications of stance, which helps examine the daily practice of educating new teachers. Stance is about the positioning involved in teaching. It depends on a postmodern view of reality as being situational and interpreted, rather than fixed and predefined. In literacy education, a reader's relationship to text…

An important feature of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is its ability to document trends in academic achievement on core curriculum areas over an extended period of time. This report presents the major results of the NAEP 1996 science, mathematics, reading, and writing long-term assessments. These results chart trends going…

Intended for teachers of grades K-12, including teachers of at-risk students and English as a Second Language teachers, speech therapists, and special education personnel, as well as general classroom teachers, this book offers a methods course to teach vocabulary. The book presents a course syllabus which includes on-line activities, readings,…

This companion volume to "Folktale Themes Volume 1: Pourquoi Tales," shows educators how to use folktales to provide meaningful, educational experiences for children. This book provides a complete package using folktales in the classroom--activity pages, teaching ideas, story themes, and an annotated bibliography of further reading for a…

A study investigated the effectiveness of a program for at-risk parents designed to improve family reading and thus prepare at-risk children for school. The program, "Ready for Reading," consists of three two-hour sessions conducted with parents at their children's school while the children are in pre-kindergarten classes in various…

The differential effects of language proficiency on standardized test performance of elementary school students (grades 4 through 6 are examined for the San Diego (California) Unified School District. Ethnicity is examined as a mediating variable circumscribing the relationship between language proficiency and test performance. Test performance is…

The Maryland School Performance Program released six sample tasks to illustrate the types of assessment tasks that would appear on the 1992 Maryland School Performance Assessment Program (MSPAP). Students' responses to these tasks are open-ended; that is, students generate their own responses. A wide range of responses to each task is acceptable.…

Changes in confidence to perform selected evaluation activities that occurred for 45 preservice teachers majoring in elementary school education during their student teaching experience were studied. Self-confidence was measured before and after the student teaching semester using the Mississippi State University Survey of Confidence in Teaching…

This monograph reviews the literature on intervention for potential dropouts at the secondary school level in order to determine factors responsible for students being at risk and to provide information on a variety of projects and programs that are effectively alleviating the number of such students who fail to complete their education. The…

This practitioner's guide is designed to provide an overview of a schoolwide study skills program that accommodates individual student learning styles of at-risk students who may be potential dropouts at the secondary education level. The schoolwide skills model described here is appropriate for all grade levels especially secondary levels as it…