McMillan Magnet Center is located in urban Omaha, Nebraska, and specializes in math, computers, and communications. Once a junior high school, it was converted to a magnet center for seventh and eighth graders in the 1983-84 school year as part of Omaha's voluntary desegregation plan. Now the ethnic makeup of the student population is about 50%…

Through a multiple case study design the influence of teachers beliefs on literacy instruction for at-risk first graders was examined and described. The volunteer sample of five female teachers who taught in different high risk schools within the same school district participated in the study. Five issues guided the study: teachers beliefs about…

The changing educational needs of midwives in England were assessed, and an open learning package for midwives was developed based on the findings. Data were collected from the following: questionnaires mailed to 1,100 registered midwives (70% response rate), all 205 coordinating supervisors of midwives in England (83% response rate); 1 randomly…

This final report describes the Case Method of Instruction (CMI) Project, a project to develop, field test, and disseminate training materials to facilitate the use of the Case Method of Instruction by inservice and preservice instructors in developmental disabilities. CMI project activities focused on developing a collection of case stories and…

A study examined the strategies and processes used by a sample of 33 Argentinean adults with little school experience to solve problems and acquire knowledge at work. A Piagetian methodological approach was used to observe adults in building, rural, and domestic work settings and to analyze empirical data regarding their behavior in task-oriented…

In examining the source of public distrust for higher education and faculty work, this volume reviews empirical data concerning questions which lie at the core of the roles of faculty in academe, in the economy, and the larger society. Chapter 1 describes the background in changing social attitudes and economic factors. Chapter 2 looks at faculty…

A study examined the socioeconomic status of Irish youth, the vocational counseling services available to them, and the specific vocational counseling needs of disadvantaged youth in the rural Irish communities of North Mayo and North-West Connemara. It was discovered that the average rural disadvantaged Irish youth is an unemployed single male…

A review of the research and a case study of current practice in one large urban school district evaluate the decision-making process of including students with disabilities in systems of educational accountability and the identification and provision of suitable accommodations for such students. Issues in the inclusion of students with…

This case study focused on a small liberal arts college (Lake Erie College, Ohio) over one year during which four milestone events appeared to be pivotal in increasing the willingness of the school to use institutional research for decision-making in areas of program modification and development. At the beginning of the year, the college was faced…

This paper presents selected findings from a three-year research investigation of general and special education reform initiatives implemented in five local school districts across the United States (including a large urban, predominately minority system; two suburban districts; a small independent city district; a large county-wide system; two…

Papers included are: (1) "The Mountain Yet To Be Climbed" (D. Siedentop); (2) "Collaboration between Researchers and Practitioners: Myth, Mirth, or Melody" (L. Lambert); (3) "The Recognition and Reward Structure in Higher Education in the United States--A Major Inhibitor to Collaboration bewteen Researcher and…

A collection of essays on second language vocabulary learning includes: "Historical Trends in Second Language Vocabulary Instruction" (Cheryl Boyd Zimmerman); "The Lexical Plight in Second Language Reading: Words You Don't Know, Words You Think You Know, and Words You Can't Guess" (Batia Laufer); "Orthographic Knowledge in L2 Lexical Processing: A…

The perceptions of cooperative education held by the students, teachers, and employers participating in cooperative education programs in Ohio and Ontario, Canada, were examined through six parallel case studies conducted in one urban, suburban, and rural school in each country. Data were gathered through site visits to each school, participant…

Teaching cases have been utilized in professional training and can offer dramatic accounts of problems teachers may confront in the classroom. This case study examines a fact-based story of a third-grade teacher's confrontation with the mother of an African-American child who disagrees with the innovative approach utilized in her child's…

This report presents the results of a study of the effects of Washington State's Professional Growth Option (PGO), a state regulation that requires schools districts to plan and implement programs for teacher professional development. Section 1 describes the study which was conducted by teachers who interviewed 23 teachers representing different…