This monograph addresses the way parents of minority students perceive the special education system, with specific attention to these parents' views of the process by which their children are designated as "handicapped." Chapter 1 discusses the Department of Education's racial classification system. Chapter 2 summarizes what is known…

This study looks at natural syntactic processes in the development of verbal mood in first- and second-language acquisition, language change in progress, history, and creolization. Correspondences are examined in the development of the subjunctive vs. the indicative mood. The study presents an integrative perspective, taking into account seemingly…

This booklet for parents summarizes the curriculum at the University of Tulsa School for Gifted Children in Oklahoma. Program goals are to: (1) enhance academic achievement; (2) provide an emotionally supportive and intellectually challenging atmosphere; and (3) develop a creative and positive approach to school learning. A major premise of…

This publication offers a portrait of poverty in San Antonio (Texas) based on an analysis of available statistical data and focusing on health, education, employment, housing, and human services. Five chapters each contain statistics regarding poverty in the United States, Texas, and San Antonio. Each chapter also begins with true stories about…

For many years, the modern language enrollment at Butler University included many students with a second major in education, and the language curriculum served this population. As the number of teacher trainees diminished, foreign language majors increasingly indicated second majors in business. To serve this population, the foreign language…

A descriptive study examined: the relative influence of native language (L1) literacy skills and second language (L2) oral proficiency on students' ability to read and spell in the second language. A second dimension of the study examined students' second language misspellings in order to identify examples of positive and negative transfer of L1…

For the Webster Avenue Family Resource Center (WAFRC) in Rochester (New York), growth and diversity marked 1989, with a total of 615 persons (up from 512 in 1988) from 273 families participating in over 12,000 hours of service. There was a related growth in space and staff. Diversity was enhanced through the following means: (1) development and…

This study examines the relationship between proficient bilingualism or biliteracy (proficiency in reading and writing in both Spanish and English) and the self-esteem of Mexican American students. The concept of proficient bilingualism has not been widely used to examine bilingual education's noncognitive functions, in particular its effect on…

The Auxiliary Secretary of Vocational, Technical, and Higher Skill Instruction of Puerto Rico has the responsibility of offering prevocational services to students with disabilities. In the prevocational phase, the student receives academic instruction and acquires the knowledge and skills of general employment. This teacher's guide, in Spanish,…

This study investigated the hypothesis that in language contact situations, bilinguals develop strategies aimed at lightening the cognitive load of having to remember and use two different linguistic systems, resulting in changes in the secondary language. The study examined four specific strategies (simplification of grammatical categories and…

Based on direct observations of the family, this paper analyzes the teaching strategies used by a Puerto Rican kindergartner's older siblings and extended family members to teach school-related knowledge and skills. As the family's instruction was conducted in Spanish only, these teaching strategies are analyzed in relation to those used by the…

This report describes a program for improving listening skills, lack of which interferes with second language acquisition. The targeted population was first- and second-year Spanish students in one middle school and one high school. Intervention over 15 weeks included changes in the classroom environment (desk arrangement, improved lighting,…

A disproportionate number of Hispanic/LEP students are leaving school in the ninth grade. Although dropout programs exist in Florida county school districts, none addressed the special language and culture difficulties, often coupled with socioeconomic problems, of these students. This practicum was designed to reduce the number of Hispanic/LEP…

Project Porvenir is a program to develop English as a Second Language (ESL) and native language arts (NLA) among limited-English-speaking, native Spanish-speaking students through career education. In its second year of operation, the project served 599 students of varying language proficiency in general and special bilingual education classes,…

An evaluation was done of New York City Board of Education's Project To Examine and Plan for Occupational Requisites and Employment (Project EXPLORE) for 1989-90. In its first year of funding, the project served 427 students of limited English proficiency and 58 English proficient students at Aviation and Long Island City High Schools in Queens.…