The trend of placing English language learners (ELLs) in mainstream classrooms has teacher education programs developing their capacity to prepare all teachers to educate ELLs. This study examined how universities in Florida implement a professional development requirement to help faculty infuse ELL content into their courses. Our findings suggest…

Competency-based education (CBE) refers to online and hybrid courses and programs that offer credit or degrees based on evidence of student learning, or competencies, rather than on the amount of time spent in a course. Students work at their own pace, receive personalized academic support, and demonstrate mastery as they progress through their…

Researchers have found that middle school students undergo developmental changes that require unique educational structures and support. As a result, experts have suggested a number of specific strategies for organizing middle schools in order to best meet students' needs. This Information Capsule summarizes middle school redesign initiatives that…

Bright Horizons, a private school located in Florida, specializes in working with students of varying exceptionalities and is founded on the principles of action research. It began as an effort to create an alternative educational opportunity for a few specific children and grew into a special education school open to the community. The purpose of…

This special report, the final installment of a three-part series on e-learning, examines how schools are working to create high-quality digital curricula and online courses. It covers the influence the common-core standards are likely to have on building the online curricula of the future, the growing emphasis on teaching social skills to virtual…

Why and how the first institution to employ learning contracts introduced the idea, from the perspective of three years' experience.

Describes Florida's new automotive mechanics curriculum, an individualized, self-paced learning sequence that combines text material, review exercises and actual work activities. Development of the materials, including incorporation of Florida's V-TECS catalog of performance objectives in auto mechanics, is described. A field-test experience of a…

This document, volume two of a two-volume project report describing a two-year study conducted to develop an individualized curriculum delivery system for competency-based vocational education, contains the following materials related to the project: a dissemination of framework paper; a schedule of conferences and workshops attended by the…

Describes Florida's Approach to Competency-Based Individualized Teaching (FACIT), which is a learning system designed to provide vocational educators with the knowledge and the skills to implement and manage an individualized, competency-based instructional delivery system. (SK)

A two-year research activity was undertaken to develop an individualized curriculum delivery system for competency-based vocational education. Foci of the research were the development of a theoretical framework for the delivery system; identification of components and processes of the system; and development of validated criteria to be used in…

Written for teachers, coordinators, and supervisors, this manual describes the structural content of Project SELEP (Survival Skills in English Learning Experience Program). It indicates areas of concern in planning, establishing, and evaluating classes emphasizing survival skills for daily living appropriate for the foreign born adult in an…