This document describes state and local elementary and secondary education standards developed for academic achievement and assessment of student progress in Missouri. In response to the Outstanding Schools Act of 1993, the Show-Me Standards were established to represent knowledge students should acquire and how they should be able to communicate…

This document contains three papers from a symposium on learning organization practices. "Learning Lenses of Leading Organizations: Best Practices Survey" (Laurel S. Jeris) shows that successful learning organizations view learning initiatives through multiple lenses with a clear, sustained focus on strategic outcomes. "Dimensions…

This paper presents a model for an integrated system used for job-aiding, training, and performance assessment for persons who maintain systems of various types. The model is driven by updatable job aids, by integrated human-machine heuristics, and by an expanding matrix of maintenance activities. The model uses the job-aiding base, updated by…

This brief guide outlines best practices in preschool screening for the presence of possible disabilities. It covers: a definition of screening, its history, the rationale for screening, requirements for effective screening measures (reliability, validity, fairness, utility), models for preschool screening, evaluation of screening procedures, and…

In an effort to address the needs of the increasing number of children who are coming to school with physical and emotional health conditions that prevent them from learning to their full potential, school systems have begun to alter the scope and nature of their school health services. Given their direct access to children, families, and school…

This book applies quality management, an organizational theory that has been successful in business and industry, to education. Chapter 1 describes the basic elements of quality management (QM)--continuous improvement, client satisfaction, positive return on investment, and doing it right the first and every time. Ways to implement Deming's 14…

Training for child care center directors should involve experiences that are coherent and connected in a logical or cumulative fashion. Twelve key elements can serve as a framework for planning professional development training experiences for early childhood center directors. These elements relate to the content, structure, and delivery of…

The teaching of thinking has become the focus of a new interventionist paradigm in schooling. Four perspectives have been particularly influential in the development of the paradigm: (1) the cognitive view of intelligence, which asserts that intellectual ability can be changed; (2) the constructivist approach to learning, which maintains that…

Although much is written about the importance of parent/teacher communication with emphasis on the significant impact of parent/teacher conferences, teachers report a lack of formal training. Neither institutions of higher education nor the public schools appear to provide clear policy and procedure for parent/teacher conferences. Thus, teachers…

Data collected during the 1989-90 school year reveal that middle schools in Guam exist in name only, with one notable exception. F. B. Leon Guerrero Middle School has implemented an interdisciplinary team model boasting many of the salient features of true middle schools. Leon Guerrero teachers rated the extent their school provided for students'…

Intended as an introduction to an interactive writing workshop, this paper presents a general description of the Document Design Center's writing model to be used by workshop participants. Suggesting that the model is an aid in analyzing and revising writing, in developing new documents, and in applying writing research to practical writing tasks,…

This document describes the comprehensive analytical framework for school finance used by the Illinois State Board of Education to assist policymakers in their decisions about equitable distribution of state aid and appropriate levels of resources to meet the varying educational requirements of differing student populations. This framework, the…

Alternative schools in public school districts and private institutions offer a choice of more than one educational option to students. These schools usually have some of the following characteristics: voluntary participation, distinctiveness, nonexclusiveness, comprehensive objectives, and a supportive learning environment. Instructional styles…

The paper describes a system used in Nebraska in which vocational rehabilitation specialists determine who is a high need client and develop programs via a social-ecological or "person-environment" perspective. A high need client is defined as an individual who will require considerable staff support, intervention, and time. A three-phase study…

This summary of methods for improving the user-computer interface is based on a review of the pertinent literature. Requirements of the personal computer user are identified and contrasted with computer designer perspectives towards the user. The user's psychological needs are described, so that the design of the user-computer interface may be…