Dividing elementary classrooms into three reading groups has become a U.S. educational tradition. Reading groups seem to have been an experiment in meeting the needs of students of different abilities, but the original caveats about flexible groups seem to have been forgotten. With the popularization of leveled basal readers, where changing groups…

In the early 1960s, four special education categories (slow learners, mentally retarded, emotionally disturbed, and culturally deprived) were used to explain the failure of lower class and minority children, while the less stigmatizing category of learning disabilities explained the failures of white middle class children. Later events changed the…

Compensatory education students and mildly handicapped special education students would be better served by a single system meeting the needs of both groups. Student classification methods, historical, political, and pedagogical reasons for separating the programs, and alternatives to the existing arrangement are discussed. (PP)

This study reports a preliminary investigation into the origins, assumptions, and practices of one of the most widespread innovations in schooling: the classroom system. Material for the historical study is drawn from sources in Glasgow, Scotland, where the combined influences of Calvinist theology, Scottish-French philosophy, and the industrial…

The purpose of this study is to provide a report of practices, policies, and trends in public elementary school organization and administration. It is intended that this current publication will make available current findings with reference to how schools are presently operating and how they are meeting continuing as well as new problems. The…

The latest available statistics for 1958-59 indicate there were 8,084 small schools and that they had enrolled in them 1,650,000 pupils. It is a matter of conjecture how much these figures will be reduced in the next 10 years, but there is considerable doubt that the reduction will be a truly significant one. In any event the current figures are…

This bulletin is the first in a series of summaries of research conducted in reading from 1955 to 1960. The publication includes both published and unpublished research during the 5-year period. The published research has been compiled largely from studies reported in educational periodicals. The unpublished research was made available through a…

This bulletin includes: (1) a general statement of present thoughts and trends, covering the accepted philosophy of purpose, influence of modern educational psychology, trends in enrollment, and the nature and trends of the present social order; (2) secondary pupil population, addressing enrollment, chronological age representation in secondary…

This bulletin presents reading research studies in the upper elementary grades during the period from 1955 through 1960. It represents an attempt to bring together the unpublished as well as published studies for that period. This compilation was undertaken by the U.S. Office of Education in response to requests from reading and language arts…

Junior and junior-senior high schools enroll a large proportion of our early adolescent population. The programs they provide, the services they offer, their administrative practices, and the character of their staffs have far-reaching effects. These programs, services, practices, and staff characteristics constitute the scope of the present…

"Schools at Work in 48 States" is a record of a cooperative study made over a period of two and a half years by nine staff members of the elementary school section of the Office of Education, with the advice and help of their co-workers. Such a study requires that the group of persons working together arrive at some commonly accepted…

This bibliography of 287 studies was completed during the period September 1925--March 1927. The sources of information used in the compilation of this bibliography were reports from schools of education, State departments of education, educational organizations and foundations, and publications received by the United States Bureau of Education.…