This paper presents one sixth-grade teacher's efforts to advance curriculum at a Hawaii elementary school through continuous monitoring of the effectiveness of her learning and teaching program. Deliberate and careful reflections in personal teaching journals, meetings with an educational consultant, school administrators, and teaching colleagues,…

Case studies of focus groups as a useful educational research strategy for evaluating noninstructional interventions are described. Focus groups were used to evaluate the effectiveness of programs in the following Virginia school settings: (1) peer counseling programs in 4 high schools with 49 student counselors; (2) gifted programs in 7…

There is a clear national consensus that for the United States to remain economically competitive, schools will have to change to emphasize higher levels of performance and skills. Students need to be independent, directed, and effective learners to be able to adapt to changing work environments by acquiring and using new information. However,…

School Development Plans (SDPs) were pioneered by individual schools and local education authorities (LEAs) in England as a grassroots approach to school management that was eventually adopted by national education authorities. An empirical investigation of the implementation and impact of SDPs was carried out in primary schools through a…

A study reviewed nonformal education provided by community organizations, particularly that for women, in the Western Cape (South Africa). It was set against a background of the struggle against apartheid and women's special needs and interests. The interview schedule included open-ended and structured questions and was designed to elicit details…

Available vocational education and training in the United Kingdom's retail sector were examined in an employee-centered study during which data were collected primarily from two sources: questionnaires completed by 1,974 from a random sample of approximately 6,000 British retail employees who were surveyed, and semistructured face-to-face…

This handbook reports on the use of consortia-appointed curriculum directors for meeting small, rural school districts' curriculum renewal needs. It is based on interviews with individuals involved with consortia in five Western U.S. case-study sites. Limited resources in rural schools often hinder curriculum-renewal efforts. If several districts…

An evaluation was conducted of the workplace literacy program developed through a partnership among the Sanford (Maine) Public Schools and three employers. During the project, 859 employees were recruited, tested, evaluated, and counseled, with 340 receiving extensive evaluation and counseling and an Individual Education Plan (IEP). Through…

This study was designed to assess, on a national basis, what education and training preservice elementary education teachers receive on the topic of home-school communication, especially in the area of parent-teacher conferencing, and to determine if there were significant differences between teacher education programs in how they prepare…

This 1991-92 report for correctional education in Canada provides analysis as well as statistical information for education programs provided during the fiscal year. A national overview contains data dealing with effectiveness based on participation, efficiency based on student/teacher ratio, and efficiency based on cost per full-time equivalent…

This study evaluated an induction year mentorship program in conjunction with the extended Generic Special Education Teacher Training Program at Texas A&M University. A questionnaire was developed and administered in the spring of 1989 to two groups of individuals for an extended year generic special education program, eight student teachers…

A survey of 121 principals and other administrators gathered data concerning their opinion of Year 1 and 2 teachers who had graduated from the Primary Programme of the Christchurch College of Education in New Zealand in 1991 and 1992. The survey addressed planning skills; management skills; relationship skills; resources and curriculum skills;…

In 1989, almost no organized recruitment efforts were made, either for tutors or learners, for Project READ, an adult literacy program held at the Longview, Washington, Public Library. The retention rate remained at 63 percent. Seventy-one tutors participated in the program; the average number tutoring each week was 34. Tutors from all walks of…

Project RETAIN (Retention in Education Technical Assistance and Information Network) is a Florida project that assists school districts through identification and dissemination of effective practices that keep students with mild disabilities in school. One part of the project examined dropout rates from Florida's 67 school districts and their…

This paper reports on a whole-school staff development program, field-tested and developed by the Appalachia Educational Laboratory, Inc. The program called QUILT (Questioning and Understanding To Improve Learning and Thinking) was designed to improve the questioning skills of classroom teachers by helping them individually and with colleagues.…