Little is known about how the expansion of state pre-kindergarten (pre-k) programs affects low-income children with disabilities in Head Start. Using almost 30 years of administrative data of all Head Start programs and a differences-in-differences design, this study tests the possibility that, as state pre-k differentially draws relatively more…

Program administrators and policy makers have placed a priority on expanding access to inclusive, center-based early care and education (ECE) for low-income children with special needs, a "doubly vulnerable" population characterized by academic and social-emotional achievement gaps at kindergarten entry. Yet, no research has documented…

Using data from the National Survey of America's Families, this study assesses the success of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) goals to increase employment, enhance family stability through marriage promotion, and reduce welfare reliance. In the period prior to TANF implementation, during implementation, and from 1 to 4 years after…

The United States Department of Education's tenth annual report on the implementation of Public Law 94-142 contains improvements but shows overdependence on reporting numbers of students without descriptions of evolutions in service delivery, and raises questions about the effectiveness of monitoring efforts carried out by the Office of Special…

The article describes the model Structured Training and Employment Transitional Services (STETS) demonstration program for retarded young adults funded by the U.S. Department of Labor. Evaluation of STETS focused on five issues: participants' subsequent labor-market behavior, use of school and training programs, public-transfer dependence, life…

The report synthesizes information from 10 years of operating the Child Service Demonstration Centers (federally funded programs serving learning disabled students). Particular emphasis is placed on the areas of diagnostics, training, research, replication, student characteristics, and intervention models. (Author/CL)

Differences between state and local special education programs and the state-federal vocational rehabilitation (VR) program are highlighted, through discussion of the history of the state-federal VR program, the differing definitions of disabilities, operation of the VR program, funding differences, and resultant differences in evaluation…

As a result of a report on the shortcomings of education for gifted and talented youth throughout the country, the U.S. Office of Education established a National Leadership Training Institute for the Gifted and Talented, designed to train teams of five leaders each from every state. (SBH)

This 2-year longitudinal study examined initial evidence of progress in reading for 1,512 children with and without identified speech-language and/or learning disabilities (LD-SLD) in the context of the explicit literacy instruction provided in Michigan's Reading First (RF)schools. The findings suggested that children with LD-SLD labels…

In this review of the "Tenth Annual Report to Congress on the Implementation of the Education of the Handicapped Act" (Public Law 94-142), data are cited concerning: current status of services, dropout rates from secondary special education, implementation of preschool special education services, and state variations in the…

An interview with Ernest L. Boyer, The U.S. Commissioner of Education, focuses on current priorities of the U.S. Office of Education, implementation of P.L. 94-142 (The Education for All Handicapped Children Act). (CL)

The Assistant Secretary for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services of the U.S. Department of Education, Madeleine Will, discusses problems in educating children with learning difficulties, notes reasons for needed changes, and comments upon the importance of early identification, curriculum based assessment, and parent…

This study determined the effectiveness of Kindergarten Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (K-PALS) for English Learners (ELs). We compared 20 K-PALS ELs to 20 Control ELs and to 20 K-PALS non-ELs on early reading skill acquisition, using a pretest-posttest control group design with matched samples. We also compared proportions of ELs unresponsive…

The Regional Education Program, as specified in Section 625 of Title VI of P.L. 93-380, awards grants or contracts to institutions of higher education, vocational and technical institutions, and other appropriate nonprofit educational agencies to enable these institutions to provide post secondary level handicapped students with special programing…