This report presents findings of an evaluation of Australia's Adult Literacy Action Campaign (ALAC) to determine whether ALAC was promoting the development of communication, literacy, and numeracy skills and skills to facilitate greater and enriched participation in society. Chapter 1 sets out the methodology and approach, which included a…

The itinerant secondary remedial resource teacher service, designed to identify and help isolated country students in Queensland who are experiencing learning difficulties and to assist teachers in classrooms, program development, and resource strategy for exceptional learners, was evaluated seven months after project initiation in 1979. Data for…

Effectiveness of the Mobile Field Study Unit's work in environmental education in south-west Queensland during 1979-1980 was evaluated through records kept by the Unit and the Priority Country Area Program (PCAP) office, evaluations by teachers, interviews with teachers and educational administrators, and participant observation of the Unit. The…

This report evaluates school-based initiatives aimed at eliminating educational disadvantages at a small, rural state primary school in Meiki, New South Wales (Australia). Meiki is a small impoverished community of approximately 850 Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. The community has a history of racial tension that directly affects the school…

Begun in 1978 to bring manual arts experience to children in Queensland's "disadvantaged country areas," the Mobile Manual Arts Unit by the end of the 1980 school year had visited 16 separate locations, involving 25 different schools. A total of 727 students had participated (out of a target population of 992 pupils) and a total of 259…

Through a combination of workshops and distance education, rural Australian middle-school teachers learned outcome-based programming, teaching, and assessment designed to improve outcomes of students experiencing educational disadvantage related to rural isolation, poverty, or aboriginality. Workplace learning, supported by in-school collegial…

The Instrumental Music Program Unit in the South-West Priority Country Area (a vast, generally arid hot region some 800 km by 450 km) is a unique, dynamic, and successful program, enjoying an extremely high degree of enthusiastic support from all involved--administrators, instructors, students, schools, and communities. Begun in 1977, there are…

Australian governments at both federal and state levels have collaborated for the past 15 years to lift Indigenous students from their position as the nation's most educationally disadvantaged group. The introduction in 1989 of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Plan was accompanied by an ambitious target of achieving…

The possibility of using instructional television (ITV) as the core component in an instructional system designed to meet the special needs of the educationally disadvantaged children of migrant farm workers, of American Indians, and of the inner-city poor was appraised. The educational problems of each of these three groups were assessed and…

Financial, educational, and political accountability issues involved in the Disadvantaged Schools Program, initiated by the Schools Commission to improve the learning outcomes of children from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds in Australia, are the focus of this paper. Consideration is given to the views of the Commission in its published…

Data for evaluation of the Mobile Remedial Unit, instituted to assist approximately 250 isolated Queensland children with learning difficulties during 1978 and 1979, were obtained by visits to 10 schools; discussions with principals, teachers, administrators, and the 2 mobile remedial teachers; document analysis; and travel with a remedial teacher…