This article examines so-called "alternative schools," taking care to define precisely what is meant by this designation. There are many types of alternative education available to the public, including those programs intended for special-education students, advanced-placement students, and home-schooled children. The first alternative schools…

The staff at the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory developed a framework that classifies factors contributing to secondary vocational education effectiveness. These factors are organized into four categories--occupational, educational, ancillary, and societal. Another study reviewed the effective schooling literature and identified six…

Part of a volume which explores current issues in service delivery to infants and toddlers (ages birth to 3) with handicapping conditions, this chapter presents program evaluation as a comprehensive process comprising three phases: input, process, and output. Three program evaluation models are summarized: Tyler's objective model, Scriven's…

This monograph discusses the state of the art in child second language acquisition research. It is of particular interest to teachers, administrators, and others concerned with educating children whose first language is not English. The first chapter deals with preschool second language acquisition. It examines processes of acquiring the sound…

Nearly forty monographs, papers and journal articles are abstracted in this review of recent literature on instructionally effective schooling. The works, most of them published since the mid-1970s, focus on various aspects of urban, minority, and compensatory education, as well as on more general issues in elementary and secondary educational…

A general evaluation model and workshop activities to help law-related education (LRE) project personnel develop and implement evaluation plans for their projects are provided. The model and activities, however, are applicable to other areas of the social studies as well. The first section of the handbook presents a model for evaluating LRE…

The overview of the research and evaluation activities sponsored or conducted by the larger school systems in the United States and Canada provides references to studies in areas of concern to educators today. As an index to research and evaluation efforts, this annotated bibliography will facilitate the exchange of information by local school…

There are a great many types of violence prevention programs in schools, and many are demonstrating signs of success. Funders will not provide resources for programs, nor will schools know how to choose them, unless quality evaluation data are available to show their effectiveness and promise. Resources to conduct a meaningful evaluation are often…

The importance of following prescribed principles in the implementation of an effective law-related education (LRE) program is emphasized. Based on research findings that law-related education is a delinquency-prevention technique, the fact sheet lists six prescriptions for providing effective law-related education programs: (1) the use of…

The original impetus for this monograph was a grant from the New Jersey Basic Skills Council of the New Jersey Department of Higher Education to evaluate two college basic skills remedial programs (one in a four-year state college, one in a two-year community college) and to produce a handbook for conducting such evaluations. This monograph is…

Intended for administrators and policy makers as well as teachers, this digest explores the components common to effective writing programs. The digest first discusses activities at the classroom level as the foundation of a successful writing program and elements that should be included in classroom instruction, such as the process approach to…

This book provides guidance on developing an effective evaluation plan for adult English language programs, whether in the context of family literacy, workplace and workforce literacy, or general language development. With an emphasis on surveys, interviews, observation measures, and performance samples, the authors show how staff members and…

Prior to presenting a model for evaluating teacher education progams, it is pointed out that five major issues must be settled before attempting an evaluation: (1) the evaluation's purpose; (2) clients or audience; (3) specific questions to investigate; (4) use of an internal or external evaluator or a combination; and (5) dissemination of the…

The seven brief chapters of this paper advocate mixed-age grouping in schools and child care centers. Discussion defines mixed-age grouping and examines some limitations of single-age grouping. Research findings on social and cognitive aspects of mixed-age grouping are reviewed. Social aspects are discussed by considering in turn the following…

The purpose of this publication is to focus on issues in development and implementation of comprehensive guidance programs. To achieve this purpose a list of 10 of the most important issues was composed. The top 10 issues, in order of frequency of concern of leaders, are: (1) displacement of non-guidance tasks, including school counselors'…