An attempt is made to summarize the perspectives and relevant experience of state-level higher education leadership in responding to the proposals for national assessment resulting from Goal V, Objective 5, of the National Education Goals, which calls for improvement in the critical thinking, ability to communicate, and problem-solving ability of…

Establishing and maintaining an orderly classroom is a primary determinant of teaching success. This booklet presents an approach to school discipline that blends the best features of existing successful programs and current research findings. The publication, written in story form, tells of two beginning teachers who realize that their success…

This paper describes the design and implementation of a staff-development program at Vivian Field Junior High School in Carrollton, Texas. The school is a member of the Texas Partnership School Initiative, which was created to give schools latitude in raising student achievement. The goal of the staff-development program was to identify gains in…

Sixteen underachieving gifted students at Oliver High School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, were identified for a pilot program called Project Inspire, which sought to improve student achievement and build self-esteem, especially for disadvantaged Afro-American students. Teachers were selected as mentors for the students, and the mentors were…

Project A+ Elementary Technology Demonstration Schools is a program made possible through grants from IBM (International Business Machines Corporation) and Apple, Inc. The primary purpose of the program is to demonstrate the educational effectiveness of technology in accelerating the learning of low achieving at-risk students and enhancing the…

A study evaluated an adaption of the Stallings Process of Teaching Reading in Secondary Schools in a large urban public school system. This inservice training program is designed to increase teachers' effective use of time. The program is composed of pre-training observations and resulting feedback on needed improvements in classroom behavior,…

This handbook is designed to assist schools in carrying out the following goals of the Fair Play program: to strengthen and expand students' female or male self-concepts, to increase their decision-making skills, and to increase their academic achievement by changing their stereotypic attitude toward particular content areas. The Fair Play program…

Bilingual Curriculum Content (BCC) is an instructional component of the Transitional Bilingual Basic Skills program offered to students with limited English proficiency (LEP) in the Dade County Public Schools, Florida. In BCC instruction, students learn mathematics and combined instruction (science, social studies, and health/safety) in their…

A study determined how direct instruction is being used and why it is being used the way that it is. Data were collected through observations and interviews from teachers and principals in 12 elementary schools involved in a school improvement project based, in part, on direct instruction. Results show that, in general, the elements of direct…

This report describes the procedures of a systemwide testing program established by the Ottawa, Ontario, education board to evaluate high school student performance in selected courses. The project was initiated in response to a directive from trustees, who were concerned about variation of academic standards among students in relation to…

In 1983-84, the Education Consolidation Improvement Act (E.C.I.A.), Chapter 1, Part B Institutionalized Facilities Program was sponsored jointly by the Division of Special Education and, for the first time, the Division of the High Schools of the New York City Public Schools. The program provided supplementary career education and daily living…

Results of this survey indicate that three important ways to improve high school student achievement are to increase daily attendance, improve study skills, and increase required courses. Two-thirds of the school district administrators responding rated increasing attendance as highly important. Almost half strongly favored increasing required…

This dissertation examines various characteristics of 79 Iowa public high schools reporting success or failure in the use of flexible modular scheduling (FMS), based on questionnaire responses. FMS schools were defined as having a daily schedule of more than 14 modules and using either variable class times, large group, small group, or independent…

A study examined multiple outcomes of relaxation training simultaneously in seventh grade classrooms. "Project Relaxation" measured cognitive (achievement) and affective (discipline, attendance, tardiness, and self-concept) changes with a program of relaxation training for 532 seventh grade students in 10 private and public middle schools in South…

After outlining the goals, budget, and personnel of the research and evaluation branch of the Dallas Independent School District, the results of 150 program evaluations are summarized and interpreted. Most evaluations are based on achievement gains as measured by standardized achievement tests. Results are often analyzed by district, subdistrict,…