Drawing provides opportunities for children to communicate their thoughts even when they do not have the vocabulary or the English proficiency to fully explain their ideas. This practical guide presents foundational information on the role of drawing in vocabulary development. The authors describe a research-based intervention designed to support…

A number of reports in the US have highlighted the country's need for improved second language skills for both national security and economic competitiveness. The Language Flagship program, launched in 2002, aims to raise expectations regarding language proficiency levels at the post-secondary level and to address structural gaps in the curricula…

The DEC Recommended Practices provide guidance to families and professionals about the most effective ways to improve learning outcomes and promote development of young children, birth through age 5, who have, or are at-risk for, developmental delays or disabilities. "Teaming and Collaboration: Building and Sustaining Partnerships" is…

Involving two or more academic subjects, interdisciplinary studies aim to blend together broad perspectives, knowledge, skills, and epistemology in an educational setting. By focusing on topics or questions too broad for a single discipline to cover, these studies strive to draw connections between seemingly different fields. Cases on…

What turns a good school into a great school? With today's schools under enormous pressure to make adequate yearly progress (AYP), the answers are more important than ever--and this essential guidebook gives K-12 administrators and educators scores of proven, concrete strategies to help their school succeed. Authors Martin Ratcliffe and Melissa…

Assistive technology (AT) can help young children with disabilities fully participate in natural, inclusive learning environments--but many early childhood professionals don't get the training they need to harness the power of AT. Fill that gap with this unintimidating, reader-friendly resource, the go-to guide to recommended AT practice for…

This book shares the lessons learned by a large community of educational researchers and science teachers as they designed, developed, and investigated a new technology-enhanced learning environment known as WISE: The Web-Based Inquiry Science Environment. WISE offers a collection of free, customizable curriculum projects on topics central to the…

A discussion of second language literacy (SLL) looks at various contexts in which language minorities in the United States attempt to become literate in English, and the effects of conflicting agendas on the individual and the second language classroom. Six areas influencing literacy agendas are discussed. In the first chapter, differing concepts…

Two basic reasons for including Oral Language Development in the instructional program are (1) to prepare students for reading instruction, and (2) to teach students how to communicate effectively in real-life situations. A child is expected to have had five or six years oral practice in a language before learning to read. When children have…

"International Education and Foreign Languages" reviews the Department of Education's Title VI and Fulbright-Hays Programs, which provide higher education funding for international education and foreign language programs. This book offers a timely look at issues that are increasingly important in an interconnected world. It discusses the…

This report uses national and case-study data to address the degree to which limited-English-proficient (LEP) students are served by Chapter 1 programs. Although nationally the ethnic distribution of Chapter 1 funds has paralleled trends in the child-poverty population, there is great variation at the state and school-district level in the…

Between 1995 and 2004, Early Head Start (EHS) grew from 68 to more than 700 programs nationwide, serving more than 62,000 children and securing the program's reputation as a beacon of hope for the nation's low-income families with infants and toddlers. According to a comprehensive 5-year national evaluation of EHS, children who participated in…

The 24th annual report to Congress on the implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is organized into four major sections. Section 1 is on context/environment and includes four modules that address special education teacher quality (from the Study of Personnel Needs in Teacher Education (SPeNSE)); costs of special…