In 2009, the U.S. Institute of Education Sciences (IES) allocated $120 million to establish the Reading for Understanding (RfU) initiative. This initiative responded to concern that children's improvement in reading comprehension had leveled off over the previous few decades, coupled with the observation that research on reading comprehension had…

California's Commission on Teacher Credentialing (Commission) requires all programs of preliminary multiple and single subject teacher preparation to use a Commission-approved Teaching Performance Assessment (TPA) as one of the program completion requirements for prospective teacher candidates. Three TPA models were approved by the Commission: (1)…

This symposium evolved from a research interest and the need to develop validity, reliability, and accountability measures to be used in the teacher education program at Delta State University, Mississippi. Researchers wanted to study student teacher self-efficacy and to establish a continuing database on the program's student teachers. The papers…

Six papers on the use and usefulness of program evaluation conducted inside government institutions by government staff, rather than by outside contractors or university personnel, are presented. Federal, state, and local evaluation efforts in executive and legislative environments are analyzed. (TJH)

This book addresses family literacy as a theoretically sound field of research and practice that can be used to improve literacy worldwide. The book's 14 chapters are divided into four sections. Following the "Introduction" (Andrea DeBruin-Parecki and Barbara Krol-Sinclair), under Section I--Theoretical Perspectives Related to Family…

At the request of the Pennsylvania State University Library, the Office of Management Studies surveyed Association of Research Libraries (ARL) members requesting information and documentation illustrating the organization, nature, and level of the library instruction function at their institutions. A review of the responses from 64 of the 94 ARL…

The Child and Adolescent Functional Assessment Scale (CAFAS) provides information on psychological impairment, including a score for the child's overall functioning as well as scale scores for eight psychosocial areas: school, work, home, community relationships, moods, self-harmful behavior, substance use, and abnormal thinking. This symposium…

Residence life programs play a key role in recruiting students, helping them make a successful transition to a new institution, and in retaining them, whether students are enrolling for the first time, transferring from another institution, or entering graduate school. Chapters in this book address theories of learning and development, new…

This report contains, in addition to the introduction and preface, 13 papers written by individuals working in the field of evaluation who present the concepts and practices of evaluation at their own particular distance education institutions. The introduction (Schuemer) gives a short outline of the evaluation nomenclature and an overview of the…

This annual report by the Developmental Mathematics Curriculum Committee (DMCC) of the American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges (AMATYC) includes seven subcommittee reports. After introductory material, the annual report outlines the DMCC's goals, enumerates its objectives for 1981 through 1986, and establishes revised goals for the…

The abstracts published in this volume are of research projects conducted between 1975 and 1980 by graduate students fulfilling requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Education at Dayton University (Ohio). Over half of these projects were conducted in elementary schools and, of these, the majority deal with reading instruction. Other…

The Standing Conference of European Ministers of Education prompted this report by their need to know about the impact of 1975 and 1977 official actions on various aspects of migrant education in their member countries. Answers to questionnaires sent to member countries and organizations in May 1978 are synthesized according to: (1) use of Council…

This document comprises part 2 of a two-part evaluation of the third-year implementation of the New York City Board of Education's 3-year high school Dropout Prevention Initiative (DPI). It consists of reports on 8 special substudies of the program in year 3 (part 1 describes the DPI and presents the evaluation findings and recommendations.) The…

This two-part anthology of research summaries examines the potential of magnet schools to provide equal education and educational access for minority group children and reviews successful magnet programs. Part 1, "Magnet Schools, Desegregation, and Choice," contains the following chapters: (1) "Using Magnet Schools for…

This section presents two pragmatic studies focusing on a real-life situation and specific applications in managerial decision making. One study deals with improving occupational safety in a bedding manufacturing plant, whereas the other concentrates on managing a state mental health program. (SLD)