This document consists of ten issues (covering January through December 2000) of the Newsletter, "Community Update," containing articles on community and family involvement in education. Article topics include: grants to improve local schools in the 21st century; the Telephone Pioneers of America; learning resources on the World Wide…

An inquiry into Indigenous education by an Australian Senate committee examined government reports produced in 1989-99 and conducted school site visits and public hearings. During the inquiry, it became clear that educational equity for Indigenous people had not been achieved, and Indigenous participation and achievement rates lagged behind those…

This book was written for scholars, policymakers, and educators and provides both an introduction to issues in literacy and language diversity and compelling questions for those who work in the field. Based on national data, the extent of language diversity in the United States is explored; what is known about English literacy, native language…

This study sought to address concerns that high levels of literacy in both English and local languages are not being attained by children in U.S.-affiliated Pacific entities served by Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (PREL). The study was designed to answer the following question: Do classroom language use and instructional practices…

This book provides a practical introduction to questions about bilingualism. It is for parents and teachers who are themselves bilingual, for monolinguals who want to know more, for those with some intuitive understanding of bilingual situations and for those who are starting from the very beginning. The book poses questions that people often ask…

A key to closing the achievement gap between students who come to school speaking a language other than English and native English speakers is adoption of two-way bilingual immersion (TWBI) programs. The bilingual immersion approach fosters excellent academic achievement and positive school attitudes in students of any ethnicity who participate.…

David Ingram's career has traversed several decades of shifting rationale for language policy in Australia. Government and institutional initiatives have at various times favoured traditional foreign language teaching, multicultural imperatives and language diversity, concern for Asian economically strategic languages, or a focus on literacy in…

This Policy Brief describes and explains patterns of access to schools in South Africa. It outlines policy and legislation on access to education and provides a statistical analysis of access, vulnerability and exclusion. It is based on findings from the Country Analytic Review on Educational Access in South Africa (Motala et al, 2007) [ED508808]…

This collection of 13 papers offers an international perspective on future directions of staff development at colleges and universities, focusing on academic staff development, higher education teaching networks, and managerial and human resource development. Papers are: (1) "Higher Education Staff Development for the 21st Century: Directions…

This report describes how the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO) Framework for Educational Accountability, which specifies outcomes and indicators for six developmental levels (ages three and six, grades four, eight, and twelve, and post-school), can be used to implement parts of the National Association of State Directors of Special…

This guide presents a model for evaluation of educational outcomes appropriate for use with all students (with and without disabilities). It addresses specific post-school outcomes, associated indicators, and possible sources of data for the indicators. The model identifies seven measurable outcome domains and three to five outcomes per domain.…

Economic changes create stress as U.S. businesses progress toward building a high quality work force for the year 2000. Skills such as critical literacy, communication, writing, math, and interpersonal competence are desired. Critical literacy involves the higher order thinking skills: the ability to analyze, evaluate, and synthesize. In addition,…

This annotated bibliography lists materials dealing specifically with the problems inherent in teaching English as a second language to South Pacific students. Some generic materials are included because of their relevance to that student group. The materials include books, research studies, journal and newsletter articles, conference and workshop…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 38 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) how writing centers succeed and fail; (2) the effects of scoring method, topic, and mode on grade 12 students' writing scores; (3) analysis of the peer…

A study examined the view of literacy as a socially constructed phenomenon situated within a culturally reproductive milieu. Within the context of one medium-sized comprehensive high school in a small city in the Midwest, the focus was on the daily classroom practice in teaching and learning to read and write. Four separate classes--two low track,…