Young children with intensive behavioral needs are often served by paraprofessionals, who are typically among the least trained and least supported staff in the school. While professional development opportunities to address challenging behavior are generally limited for special education teachers, such professional growth opportunities are often…

This study examined a five-year project initiated by the Women's Global Connection (WGC) to train pre-primary teachers in schools serving HIV/AIDS orphans in Zambia. The researchers evaluated the contextual factors of the training initiative to clarify why some teachers possess high self-efficacy, while others do not. The article analyses the…

Improving school climate takes time and commitment from a variety of people in a variety of roles. This document outlines key action steps that instructional staff--including teachers, paraprofessionals, and others in the classroom who provide instruction or assistance--can take to support school climate improvements. Key action steps are provided…

Switch-on is an intensive, targeted literacy intervention that aims to improve the reading skills of pupils who are struggling with literacy. There are two versions of the intervention: Switch-on Reading and Switch-on Reading and Writing. Both involve specially trained Teaching Assistants (TAs) delivering a tailored programme of literacy support…

This guide is designed to facilitate self-studies of planning and implementation of state-required summer reading camp programs for grade 3 students who scored at the lowest level on the state reading assessment. It provides a template for data collection and guiding questions for discussion that may improve instruction and increase the number of…

This article describes an effective model for employing paraprofessionals to provide behavioral support for students in a general education setting. Behavioral health assistants (BHAs) worked under the supervision of school psychologists and counselors and provided behavioral interventions for students with behavioral goals on their individualized…

This article presents 5-year longitudinal data on parent involvement in the Parent Education Follow Through Program in ten communities in nine states. The data are categorized in terms of the six major ways in which parents can become involved in the program: (1) teachers of their own children, (2) paid paraprofessionals, (3) decision makers and…

This report describes the development, implementation and evaluation of a pilot early intervention program for parents and their infants 1 to 36 months old. Parents were trained by paraprofessionals (under the direction of professionals) to increase their psychomotor areas. The pilot project included 90 families with children under three years of…

Cost-benefit studies of the Early Intervention Research Institute at Utah State University are summarized. No differences were found in educational effectiveness between half- and full-day programs, with the costs of half-day programs being about 75-85% of full-day programs. No significant differences were found between groups served by…

This is the second report evaluating Project Education and Community Development, a project which was conducted in largely Islamic Jewish, disadvantaged neighborhoods in Ofakim, Israel. Part I describes the project's background, aims and objectives, intervention strategies, and implementation phases. Part II consists of an evaluation of the…

At the beginning of the 1970-71 school year, eight ESEA Title I programs were implemented in Community District 23. The eight projects that were basic to the Title I program in District 23 included a Pre-Kindergarten Program, the basic aims of which were the development of language, perceptual, and cognitive skills in young children. A second…

To determine the relative effectiveness of different methods of preschool educational intervention for disadvantaged children, comparisons were made of five programs whose levels of structure ranged from the traditional nursery school to a highly structured preschool. Subjects were 79 4-year-olds representing a wide range of ability levels.…

The contents of this book are as follows: Chapter I, "Human Deprivation: Causes and Consequences," examines the following topics: eugenics versus euthenics in school; poverty; Mexican-American poverty in the United States; the American Indian; the black American; deprivation; and, subjective deprivation. Chapter II, "Infant Learning and…

This article presents a longitudinal analysis of the Florida Parent Education Programs which were designed to provide intervention services to socioeconomically disadvantaged parents of young children through home visits by paraprofessional personnel. The programs include the: (1) Parent Education Project (PEP); (2) Early Child Stimulation through…

An overview is provided of a 5-year project conducted by the Early Intervention Research Institute (EIRI) which focused on the effects and costs of early intervention for young handicapped children. The bulk of the document consists of research reports of 14 investigations: (1) meta-analysis of the early intervention efficacy literature; (2)…