A program was developed to improve the physical fitness of 15 trainable mentally retarded students in a special school. Preliminary surveys of parents and teachers and observations of students indicated that the majority of students in the targeted group were physically unfit and exhibited poor attitudes about physical exercise. A daily…

This practicum was designed to improve critical thinking skills and reading abilities in fourth-grade students in a rural elementary school. A test administered prior to implementation of the practicum revealed that students' reading ability ranged from primer to third grade level. During the practicum, 15 students who were members of an…

A guidance counselor and chair of an elementary school's special services team implemented a 10-week practicum intervention designed to improve the school attendance of 107 kindergarten through fifth grade students who were chronically absent. While 49 percent of the truant students lived in an inner-city housing project, 62 percent lived in…

A seminar was designed to present AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) related information to 52 college students enrolled in Psychology 101 courses at Essex Community College in Maryland. First, a questionnaire was administered to determine student knowledge about AIDS. The next part of the procedure was an intervention in the form of a…

A practicum was designed to motivate primary students to increase the quantity and improve the quality of their writing. Publication of student works was the prime motivating factor. Other objectives were to develop in students a more positive attitude toward writing and gain the agreement of teachers that the publishing of their students' written…

This paper describes a program in which community members (retired citizens, parents, and others) provided tutorial services over a 12-week period to five learning disabled primary grade students in a resource room program. Comparison of pretest and posttest results showed a greater than 20 percent increase in reading scores. Weekly spelling test…

A dropout prevention program was developed to address the needs of middle school alternative students, those students who have been labeled as severely disruptive and who fall into the high-risk category for potential dropouts. Many of the students have a history of physical violence, abusive language, truancy, and police arrests or juvenile…

A practicum was designed to motivate children to read and to read for pleasure. Since reading is considered an important part of the daily curriculum of an elementary school and spills over into every discipline taught, reading appears to be a key to success in all curriculum areas. An in-class model for delivering remedial assistance was used…

This study compares the retention rates between students at Tunxis Community-Technical Colleges who took the student development seminar and those who did not. Implemented in fall 1997, the seminar orients new students to the college experience, attempting to increase retention rates. In order to conduct the study, a review of the literature was…

This practicum was designed by a curriculum development administrator to develop positive attitudes in at-risk 7th-9th grade students in a drop prevention school in Florida. The school was located in a small town in an agricultural county whose population was predominantly black and of low socioeconomic status. The number of students varied from…

For decades, educators have been concerned with the problem of truancy. Accordingly, this report focuses on an absentee improvement program at a rural, lower-middle class, predominantly white elementary school with 722 students that had a history of high truancy, as verified by teachers, the administration, the school counselor, staff, and…

In winter 1995, a study was conducted at Rochester Community College (RCC), in Minnesota, to examine the effectiveness of a study skills class (SS198). Specifically, the study sought to determine if the course met established criteria of retaining 50% of completers in good academic standing for 1 year, to compare retention rates to non-enrolled…

This practicum addressed the attitudes and behaviors of 10 adolescents with severe behavioral and emotional problems participating in a cooperative job training program. The intervention used an adventure approach to help the students replace aggression and misconduct with job-related social skills. A needs assessment was conducted to identify…

An orientation and peer helper program was developed at a public middle school in a rural community to reduce the problems associated with sixth-grade students transferring into the school during the school year. Transfer students and their parents or guardians were provided with a video and brochure that explained the school's services, programs,…

This paper reports on a practicum that was designed to improve the behavior of at-risk youth. It targeted seventh- and eighth-grade students who attended a 12-week middle school violence prevention program which utilized a multisensory approach in conjunction with group counseling. This practicum included an educational component for parents and…