This research bulletin provides criteria and procedures for determining the readiness of children to enter kindergarten early. The first section of the bulletin reviews the results of a literature search conducted to delineate areas of development from which admissions criteria should be defined. The review of the literature disclosed the…

Parent conferencing is a way to dramatically improve home/school relationships. Parent conferences, at their very best, provide the teacher with useful information about individual students. More importantly, however, they create a parent/teacher team atmosphere, with each member contributing his or her knowledge and experience for the benefit of…

One of a series dealing with current issues affecting language arts instruction, this paper focuses on writing evaluations. The paper begins by noting that any practical discussion of the evaluation of writing must address the question of how to obtain reliable, informative judgments about students' writing. The paper then discusses the purposes…

This yearbook deals with the dynamics of creative individual and collective leadership and the ways in which industrial arts educators can apply them to improve their professional services. The first two papers examine the ideals of leadership as well as the individual's function and the history and development of leadership. Examined next are the…

This document consists of the five issues of "Volunteer Voice," the newsletter of a Tacoma, Washington, English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) training project, issued as volume VIII, during the period June 1990-February 1991. The first issue provides a bibliography of recommended books for ESL tutors and teachers on the following topics: general…

When a college conducts an accreditation self-study, it is best to begin by addressing basic philosophical questions about the college's mission and goals. American River College in Sacramento, California, began its process by responding to the following questions: (1) Can we be all things to all people? (2) Does open door mean open curriculum?…

Intended to assist practitioners in vocational education in improving program planning and evaluation, this paper provides an overview of needs assessment, which is a method of acquiring evaluative data required by the Vocational Education Amendments of 1978 (P.L. 94-482). The first two sections discuss various definitions of educational needs…

Story telling is defined as a kind of journalistic documentation, based on directly observable referents, and used to contribute to an understanding of educational problems. In the area of educational research, story telling is part of the genre which includes case studies, ethnography, and ethnology. Story telling describes an environment in…

One of a series of sixteen knowledge transformation papers, this paper reviews data sources for objective evaluation of vocational education, including the need for such information and the problems associated with its use. First, a list is given of thirty-five data elements necessary to evaluate a skill training problem at the secondary,…

Students with disabilities have been excluded to an unreasonable extent from large-scale assessment programs at the national, state, and local levels. One implication of this exclusion practice is that students who are left out of assessments tend not to be considered during reform efforts. Another implication is that estimates of performance are…

One of a series dealing with current issues affecting language arts instruction, this paper focuses on writing across the curriculum. The paper begins by observing that schools and colleges across the country are developing school-wide writing programs, the purposes of which are to improve writing, to enhance learning of content, and to develop…

Members of the Council of Universities and Colleges present recommendations and practical strategies in the area of curriculum development in this monograph. Louis Bender discusses strategies for curriculum revision. James Wattenbarger and Sandra Scaggs relate organization theory to the process of curriculum change. Raymond Schultz and Carl Webb…

This primer is intended as a guide for the development and improvement of summer youth programs. The primer focuses on three common forms of summer academic enrichment strategies that combine work and learning: work-based learning strategies, classroom-based enrichment strategies, and summer jobs strategies. It includes information on the…

This evaluation handbook is the third in a series of three handbooks developed for individuals, school districts, and agencies interested in implementing career education programs. It is a user's manual with easy-to-follow directions for the implementation of specific evaluation activities. The handbook is divided into the following nine sections:…

An overview of and rationale for population education for elementary and secondary schools are given beginning with a definition of population education as an effort to teach children about basic population issues and to encourage them to have smaller families. Various aspects and concerns related to the selection and implementation of population…