Teachers who implement new programs have often been observed to adapt them to suit their own teaching situations. This process of adaptation raises four important issues: (1) Can teachers replicate practices developed elsewhere? (2) Can they be equally effective in doing so? (3) Must adaptation occur for implementation to succeed? and (4) Can…

Intended to help educators create defensible, differentiated programs for the gifted, the paper analyzes the rationale for such programs and discusses program planning aspects. The following topics are addressed: the need for conceptualization of different programs for the gifted; suggested program goals; program prototypes; curricula for gifted…

The success of community-based instructional programs for students with moderate/severe handicaps depends on leadership provided by special education administrators. Potential problem areas in which proactive administrative efforts are particularly needed include: providing leadership to staff and parents; staff hiring, allocation, and teaming;…

The procedural safeguards required by the Infants and Toddlers with Disabilities Program (Part C) of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) are intended to protect the interests of families with infants and toddlers with special needs and of the early intervention system. Early intervention system personnel are legally obligated to…

A growing body of evidence confirms what makes sense intuitively--quality matters for participation in after school programs. Nationwide, a chief concern among after school stakeholders is programming for middle schoolers--too "old" to be told what to do after school and too "young" to be left home alone. A national dialogue about the state of…

Insights into multicultural education practices are provided through the lens of the research literature. Two research ideologies are identified: research on multicultural education--the employment of the concepts and procedures of logical positivism to study the implementation of multicultural education, and multicultural education research--the…

This article reviews the rationales and premises of the Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) approach and early childhood special education (ECSE), highlighting areas of overlap. DAP's insufficiencies for planning, implementing, and evaluating ECSE programs are noted. A selective literature review clarifies issues separating the two areas,…

The development and current status of coteaching to meet the needs of students with disabilities in mainstream settings are reviewed. Issues are identified concerning resources (finances, time, and space); participants (role clarification of both professionals and paraprofessionals); and implementation (the need for documentation of coteaching…

Drawing from an analysis of more than 50 documents related to the need for technical education and training in Texas, and from interviews with 29 individuals knowledgeable about the state's technical education and training, this report assesses the current statewide capacity to to adequately train the workforce that is the expected requirement for…

This paper reviews research on the family's influence on adolescent academic achievement and other related school outcomes and the few existing empirical studies of relevant prevention and intervention programs. Research on family processes has identified salient factors that impact crucial features of the parent-teen relationship. These include…

In response to calls for increased accountability in educational institutions, the American Association of Community Colleges developed the following 13 core indicators of institutional effectiveness: student goal attainment, fall to fall persistence rates; degree completion rates; placement rates in the work force; employer assessments of…

Both the school-to-work system and youth development theory emphasize preparing youth for adulthood. They share the following characteristics: prevention of problem behaviors, a belief that young people develop by learning actively and in context, a conviction that young people need opportunities to interact with and be respected by adults who…

The School-to-Work Opportunities Act broadens the meaning of curriculum by calling for integrated learning organized into coherent sequences around broadly conceived career majors. Work experience, as well as academic and occupational study, is an assumed element of the integrated school-to-work curriculum. A variety of strategies for curriculum…

This bulletin focuses on the requirement of the School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1994 that school-to-work initiatives engage representatives of organized labor in the development, implementation, and governance of a school-to-work system. The first section outlines what organized labor brings to the school-to-work initiative. The next section…

A questionnaire on use of cooperative learning was distributed to all faculty (76 respondents) in the College of Technical Careers at Southern Illinois-Carbondale (SIUC) and a sample of the membership (66 respondents) of the American Technical Education Association (ATEA). For both samples, the main use of groupwork was with laboratory…