This volume contains 14 essays and commentaries on youth development penned by educators, policymakers, and leaders of youth development organizations. The papers, written to commemorate 10 years of American Youth Policy Forum's service, were originally presented at a forum in Washington, D.C., in January 2003. Following are the papers:…

The roles of cultural practice and informal learning in young people's transitions to work and adulthood were explored in case studies of performing arts programs in Mannheim, Germany; Liverpool, England; and Lisbon, Portugal. Expert interviews, participant observation, and documentary analysis were conducted to explore how the pedagogical model…

Entrepreneurship, or small business ownership, is an increasingly attractive option to young people and adults (including low-income populations, at-risk youth, and women) who are striving to find careers that are exciting to them and offer the potential for personal and financial success. Entrepreneurs must be self-starters, innovative, willing…

Noting that many teachers and parents are baffled by the repetitiveness of young children's conflict and by their own reaction to it, this book describes how adults can help children find alternatives to hurtful words and fighting by settling differences through a six-step mediation process based on several basic adult-child interaction…

This book provides a comprehensive guide to recent development in the research and practice of assessing children in need. The book examines the policy framework for assessment, the process of assessment, and how to assess a child's developmental needs and the capacity of that child's parents and family to respond to those needs. Following an…

The earth sciences is an evolving set of disciplines encompassing more than 30 specialties; however, earth scientists continue to be trained within the traditional disciplinary structure. Earth science education should focus not only on student acquisition and retention of factual knowledge, but also on the development of higher-order skills…

This book is designed to help teachers become more knowledgeable, skilled, and effective in their work, explaining the importance of understanding students' interests, learning styles, and backgrounds in order to meet their unique needs and describing why having the ability to manage the learning environment, motivate students, and teach is itself…

This document explains how to establish study circles for public dialogue and community problem solving with the aim of building strong neighborhoods. The foreword explains the value of study circles in addressing the challenges currently facing all kinds of neighborhoods and presents 10 specific guidelines for organizing study circles in a…

These four issues of this quarterly publication on the education of gifted students contain the following featured articles: (1) "Reflections on China: Implications for Gifted Education" (Andrea I. Prejean and Lynn H. Fox); (2) "Differentiating Instruction for Gifted Middle School Students in Heterogeneous Science Classes"…

This book is intended for professionals who are responsible for designing and implementing educational programs for children with attention deficit disorders and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADD/ADHD). Chapters address: (1) myths and realities about ADD/ADHD; (2) definitions, disorders associated with ADD/ADHD, and federal educational…

Designed for practicing speech-language pathologists, this book discusses different lesser-known syndrome disabilities, pertinent speech-language characteristics, and goals and strategies to begin intervention efforts at a preschool level. Chapters address: (1) Apert syndrome; (2) Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome; (3) CHARGE syndrome; (4) Cri-du-Chat…

From the fall of 1998 through fall of 1999, visits to 9 community colleges in 3 states were conducted to investigate current practices regarding students with disabilities. Approximately 1 year later, 6 additional community colleges were visited in the same 3 states and similar data were collected. Through a series of interviews, questionnaires,…

Ideological arguments are made for open learning, economic ones for distance education. If it can produce similar results to those of conventional education at a lower cost, then distance education has a powerful appeal. With increasing demand for access to educational opportunities at all levels, and often decreasing budgets in real terms for…

The experience of long-term poverty affects many child outcomes, in part through a family stress process in which poverty is considered to be one of the major factors causing family dysfunction, depression among caregivers and inadequate parenting. Recent scholarship extends the classical Family Stress Model by researching the ways in which…

C. June Maker, Professor at the University of Arizona, has developed a unique performance-based assessment in which children are observed by teams of teachers, counselors, paraprofessionals, administrators, specialists in education of the gifted and bilingual education, and local community members. The assessment, designed initially to …