This monograph details the findings from the fourth year of a 5-year Consumer Needs Assessment Project. Sixteen focus groups consisting of 133 working-aged persons (25 to 60 years old) with disabilities were convened in 3 different parts of the United States to discuss their personal and technological needs. Consumers identified problems they face…

Recognizing the need for family, school, and community members to participate in partnerships to support middle level children, this study investigated the perceptions of family members, community members, and middle school teachers regarding their relationships with each other from a perspective that views all three groups as integral parts of a…

Sports programming plays a significant role in the media messages that American boys receive today. To explore the messages that sports programming presents to its audience, this report relates the findings of a study that analyzed a representative selection of sports programs and their accompanying commercials; also presented are findings from a…

For much of the past 20 years, philanthropists have invested significant time, money and knowledge into the important task of improving the nation's education system. Collectively, their efforts have targeted all aspects of the system--from helping teachers upgrade their skills and knowledge to creating better curricula and classroom tools, from…

The College Board developed a program in the content areas of English and mathematics designed to prepare students for challenging content as early as grade 6 and extending through high school. Conceived with the goal of creating high-quality professional development activities with associated instructional strategies embedded in instructional…

Describes a battery of biological and social research methods used to compare characteristics of urban schoolchildren, homeless street children, squatter children, and village children. Highlights the importance of methods that link the physical, psychological, and social aspects of children's lives. (KDFB)

In this study of the Accelerated Reader (AR) program, qualitative and quantitative analyses of the relationship between the implementation of AR and student motivation and extent of reading are drawn from data collected in three schools in Scotland and England. These schools represent low (Scotland, n=53), middle (Scotland, n=40), and high…

Methodological analyses of sexual victimization research are still rare, despite the explosion of interest in this topic and widely varying rates across studies. In-depth analysis of the meaning of differences in rates is especially lacking. A series of five ethnically and geographically diverse focus groups were held to explore how wording in…

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of pre-service teachers' participation in a constructivist intervention supported by technology on their confidence in their own ability to plan and create six technology-supported, constructivist, learning activities, as well as to understand their perceptions of the experience. Participants…

Universities commonly rely upon International Teaching Assistants (ITAs) to teach basic courses. This use of ITAs is a considerable benefit to universities; however, there is substantial evidence to suggest that undergraduate students quite often object to being taught and graded by ITAs. If universities and their academic departments wish to…

This monograph describes results of focus group interviews with 48 regular and special education teachers in West Virginia concerning their experience with inclusion of students with disabilities in regular education classrooms. An introduction notes the trend toward greater inclusion of these students while providing needed special educational…

Researchers examined the attitudes that Australian vocational education and training students and teachers hold about generic skills. Data were collected through interviews with 25 technical and further education (TAFE) senior managers and teachers from 4 states, 3 focus groups with a total of 25 TAFE students in Queensland, and surveys of…

This paper examines the attitudes of adults and teenagers in 10 predominantly rural Alaskan communities toward their own health and well-being and that of children and families in their community. The communities were located across the state and ranged in size from populations of under 900 to over 50,000. The proportion of Alaska Natives in the…

This document discusses policy and practice addressing the need for financial literacy education for older people in the United Kingdom. The discussion is based largely on the findings of survey and focus groups that were conducted to identify the difficulties older people encounter in dealing with different financial services and managing their…

Although America is engaged in a national dialogue about race, children's voices have yet to be heard on the matter. This study used a series of focus groups and a national poll of 10- to 17-year-olds to examine their views about race and the role of the media in shaping understanding. Participating in the polls were 1,200 children, 300 in each…