This paper reviews research on the design and effectiveness of preschools in the United States. Three randomized controlled trials that enrolled roughly 350 total children in demonstration studies during the 1960s and 1970s shape much of the current discussion of preschool. We examine what these studies and more recent ones based on random…

Traditional approaches to education and youth work were transformed by two psychologists who came to the United States as Hitler rose to power. Practical theorist Kurt Lewin challenged mechanistic ideas of behavior by studying children in their natural "life space." Theory practitioner Fritz Redl applied life space concepts to work with…

This study examined the effects of functional assessment and positive behavior support on classroom behaviors of young children. An experimental program, entitled FACET, was implemented by school-based teams in pre-kindergarten through first-grade classrooms. Observations of child behaviors and classroom variables were compared between…

By the novel system of rewards outlined in this article, two-year-old children learned to read, the hyperaggressive to sit calmly and study, and the nonverbal and the autistic to speak. (RJ)

A plan was devised to improve the behavior and attitudes of selected junior high school students who, as a result of continual classroom misbehavior, had been frequently referred by classroom teachers to the assistant principal. The program involved organization and use of resource persons already available in the school (including guidance…

The Discovery Room is a mental health oriented primary school intervention for children with learning and behavioral difficulties in the classroom which has been steadily modified over a four-year period through accommodation to real-life needs of an inner city school. In the Discovery Room, a special teacher works with children singly or in pairs…

MANY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CHILDREN IN THE DISADVANTAGED AREAS OF BOSTON MANIFEST SERIOUS EMOTIONAL AND BEHAVIORAL PROBLEMS WHICH HINDER THEIR PERFORMANCE IN SCHOOL AND OFTEN NEGATE THE VALUE OF THE SCHOOL'S EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM. FACTORS IN THE HOME AND NEIGHBORHOOD ENVIRONMENT OFTEN CAUSE PROBLEMS SUCH AS ANTAGONISTIC BEHAVIOR IN SCHOOL, ABUSIVENESS…

The Self-Instruction Center is the name given to the location for students who participate in an experimental project at Webber Junior High School in Saginaw, Michigan for students experiencing behavioral as well as learning difficulties. (Authors/CB)

This paper is a discussion of The Churchill School, founded in 1972 as an alternative approach to serving the educational needs of children diagnosed as hyperactive, hyperkinetic, brain damaged, neurologically impaired, or suffering from minimal brain dysfunction. The school has a student body of 65, ranging between 6 and 13 years of age. The…

This study describes and evaluates an experimental program for reducing tardiness in a rural junior high school. The subject school housed approximately 1,500 seventh- and eighth-grade students. Under the "Lock Out Program," first-time tardy students were given a one-day work detail in the cafeteria for 15 minutes of their lunch period.…

This three year experimental project used a multiagency approach to provide intensive counseling services for pupils with behavior problems in grades 7 through 12. The cooperating agencies were the public schools, Juvenile Court, Vocational Rehabilitation Division, and the Department of Public Welfare of Tulsa, Oklahoma. The 171 selected students…

This article describes the application of experimental analysis methods for identifying reading fluency interventions for two elementary school students (fourth and fifth grade) referred for reading problems. For each student the experimental analyses examined use of rewards, instruction, and a treatment package containing both reward and…

Evaluations of 2 experimental programs developed by the St. Cloud, Minnesota, school system with funds from Title III, Elementary and Secondary Education Act are given in this report. Section 1 describes the Junior High Development Center, a program designed to help students who had very low basic education skills and showed signs of becoming…

The purpose of this study was to examine young Children's tendencies to be task or socially oriented in an experimental situation. On the basis of past research, two independent variables were chosen: field dependence-independence and sex. It was expected that field-dependent subjects and girls would tend to be more socially oriented, while…

This document provides summary descriptions of a dozen ESEA Title III programs using behavior control techniques on various populations of school-age youth, for different objectives. Each program summary gives the title, population served, approximate annual cost, procedures, a brief evaluation, and whom to contact for further information. (EM)