For the past decade, MDRC has evaluated a number of interventions designed to improve the outcomes of community college students, including enhanced counseling, learning communities, and financial incentives. Encouragingly, many of these strategies have produced positive effects, affirming that changes in institutional practices and policies can…

This volume brings together research carried out in a variety of geographic and linguistic contexts including Africa, Asia, Australia, Canada, the Caribbean, Europe and the United States and explores efforts to incorporate linguistic diversity into education and to "harness" this diversity for learners' benefit. It challenges the largely…

This study examines predictors of social support and mental health among 36 lesbian and 39 heterosexual couples who were waiting to adopt. Lesbian preadoptive partners perceived less support from family than heterosexual partners but similar levels of support from friends. Lesbian and heterosexual partners reported similar levels of well-being.…

In this study, the authors examined the academic performance of 18 urban districts that participated in the 2009 Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) of the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP). The districts participated in grade 4 and grade 8 reading and mathematics assessments. Eleven of these districts also participated in the…

This paper describes an academic assistance program designed to help ethnic minority students adjust to the demands of university life and succeed both academically and personally. The Excel program has three major components: a two-semester, two-credit core seminar; weekly instructional support groups; and peer led tutorial/discussion groups. The…

This article describes the implementation of small-group reading instruction as secondary- and tertiary-level components of a three-tier model of prevention and intervention. The study consisted of 83 students who were targeted in the winter of kindergarten as being at high risk for reading failure. Intervention consisted of evidence-based…

Several attempts by the author to improve his small group teaching sessions are described and their advantages and drawbacks are discussed. Focus is on his preferred approach, which uses a pattern system to enable students to participate in the structuring of the discussion. (Author/JMD)

This statistical report, one of a series published every 3 years since 1975, consists of distribution data regarding medical college faculty by sex, ethnicity, degree, department, academic rank, age, tenure status, and year of first faculty appointment. It is organized into three sections, of which the second two constitute the bulk of the…

This report is based on an in-depth study of early education in five multicultural primary schools in England's West Midlands. The aim of the study was to identify developments and features of organization that facilitate communication between teachers and children and among the children themselves. Specifically examined were the abilities of 247…

This report presents data, collected from 3,532 institutions of higher education within the 50 states and the District of Columbia, concerning the number of degrees conferred by these accredited institutions over the 10-year period from 1980-81 to 1989-90. Primary data sources were the Higher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS) for…

"Good Schools in Poor Neighborhoods" contrasts highly effective schools serving urban, low-income, minority youth with their more typical, struggling counterparts. Highlighted are two disparate schools: one serving predominately African American students in a large northeastern city and one serving Latino students in a southwestern urban area.…

A study of the relationship between class size and college student achievement in classes ranging from 13 to 1,006 students revealed that at this level, class size may be a less important factor in achievement than has been assumed. (MSE)

A study compared productivity for five groups of college faculty: white men (n=3,182), white women (n=1,221), and faculty of African (n=79), Asian (n=120), and Hispanic (n=67) origin. Variables examined include research productivity, contact hours, administrative service, consulting, promotion/tenure standards, job satisfaction, and affirmative…

A study was conducted to assess the psychological effectiveness of cooperative small group learning among junior college students with less than 11th grade skill levels. Three English classes, reflecting the overall student population, were chosen. All classes met three days a week and had the same instructor and out-of-class assignments. Two of…

A wide range of tools is now available to enable teaching practitioners to create web-based educational materials from PowerPoint presentations, adding a variety of different digital media, such as audio and animation. The pilot study described in this paper compared three different systems for producing multimedia presentations from existing…