The introduction to this Special Topic Collection has two parts. To provide background and context for the articles in the collection, Part 1 tells the story of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study program at the National Center for Education Statistics. It offers an abridged history of this program and describes the designs of the two national…

Describes how, as part of the Middle School Achievement Project, Minneapolis parents and community members shadowed students and teachers, and experienced middle level classrooms while collecting data about curriculum and classroom environments that led to middle level school improvement. Details study procedures including study instruments,…

Describes the Head Start Classroom of the Future project, which is being introduced into inner-city centers in Grand Rapids, Michigan; a classroom for children of Hispanic migrant farmworkers in Holland, Michigan; and a classroom for Native American children at the Isleta Pueblo Head Start near Albuquerque, New Mexico. (BB)

Conducted in 1991, this study surveyed the quality of day care centers in the province of Pavia, Italy, in order to provide a description of the centers and to trace educational patterns in the infant, young toddler, and toddler sections of the centers. The 32 day care centers located in the province employ a staff of 342 and provide 1,700 places…

Advocates cooperative learning, rather than competitive learning, in the classroom. Offers an example of cooperative learning among nursery school children in Tenants Harbor, Maine. Discusses ways for teachers to facilitate cooperative learning in program and classroom design. (BB)

Project GLAD (Guided Language Acquisition Design), a model of inservice teacher training in which teachers learn to modify instruction to promote acquisition of English as a Second Language, is outlined. The model uses the whole language approach to language learning. Its development was guided by research in whole language theory; integration of…

The study identified themes running through special class programs for the emotionally handicapped, analyzed classroom procedures, and described the teachers' backgrounds, attitudes, and purposes and the students' perceptions of the programs. Initially, 117 public school programs for the emotionally handicapped were located and surveyed by mail;…

This monograph discusses issues in the design and implementation of two-way immersion, or two-way bilingual education programs, and describes three exemplary programs. An introductory section examines briefly the rationale for two-way immersion and the extent of its use in the United States. Three school program profiles follow: (1) Francis Scott…

The collection of articles from publications of the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) offers a theoretical basis for construction of effective English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) programs. Articles address issues of national policy, content and design of academic programs, and the context for ESL learning. They are:…