The Fit Family Challenge, a web-based healthy lifestyle program, was developed to motivate families to participate in more physical activity by tracking their behaviors and by providing them with educational materials and community events to attend with their families. This article is an account of the steps taken and the efforts needed to make a…

Various approaches to the professional development school (PDS)--each designed for its respective audience, mission, and purpose for engagement--have shaped the professional development school effort during the past 25 years. Central to these approaches is improving teacher quality in the service of student learning. This provides direction for…

Seven small private colleges in three states have found a way to reduce their administrative technology costs and expand their technological capability at the same time. They have done it by choosing the common-sense, yet unconventional, college and university strategy of genuine collaboration. The result, the Independent College Enterprise (ICE),…

The document offers proceedings of the First National Conference on Special Recreation for the handicapped which coincided with the dedication of White Oak Village/Mountwood Park (West Virginia), a recreational facility designed to serve as a national model for meeting the recreational needs of the handicapped. An introductory paper by E. Lehew…

Music educators elected to offices in the state organization in charge of the West Virginia student chapters of the Music Educators National Conference describe their organization's objectives and strategies. (RM)

Special provisions are made for handicapped students in terms of curriculum and elimination of structural barriers in order to facilitate their preparation for a profession through a college education. Program has served as a successful precedent for other educational institutions. (TA)

The creation of multifaceted, multigenerational programs in college communities could create a ripple effect of advocacy for physical education with students and parents becoming agents for change in their own families, communities, cultures, and professions. This article describes community-based physical activity programs at West Virginia…

The Appalachia Educational Laboratory, Inc. (AEL) of Charleston, West Virginia, has established an employer-based career education program in which unions have recently joined employers and educators in helping local youth explore careers and learn academic skills at worksites throughout the community. (Author)

The purpose of this project was to develop a set of model policies, procedures, and agreements that would enhance student articulation among and between secondary and postsecondary vocational education programs. The project was divided into four phases. In the first phase, a nationwide search and review of existing articulation programs and…

To show communications as a total system, West Virginia University's Technology Education Program developed a course called Career Exploration in Technology (CEIT) through an agreement with the Mason County (West Virginia) Public School System. Two graduate students describe their CEIT program, now a required ninth-grade course at Wahama High…

The 10 papers presented in this report examine various aspects of rural bookmobile projects in the United States. The objectives of this first bookmobile conference were to offer (1) encouragement to bookmobile workers; (2) information for improving their services; (3) new data for subjective analysis of services; and (4) assistance in developing…

The Urban 4-H Program involved low income, inner city youth in two of the State's largest cities. The project background is described. Data bearing on the program planning process and attempts to ascertain the nature, source, and extent of influences affecting that process is analyzed. Urban 4-H Program participants are compared on several…

Descriptions of 27 state early childhood education programs are presented in this survey conducted to provide information on which to base program development decisions related to early childhood education in West Virginia. The study surveyed the following areas in each state: definition of early childhood education; administrating agency; laws,…

The project was designed to develop and test instructional packages from a selected list of 149 competencies (identified in a separate study done by North Carolina State University) needed by vocational administrators for effectively administering vocational education in local education agencies. The packages were designed for use in West…

The decline in Federal funding for state-provided social services during the 1980s triggered a transformation in the states' roles in family policymaking. This booklet documents four state initiatives designed to bring about systems change: (1) Healthy Start (California); (2) the Governor's Families and Children Initiative (Colorado); (3) the…