Since 1990, the privately organized Teach For America has deployed more than 10,000 graduates to disadvantaged schools plagued by teacher shortages. The recruits take part in five-week summer institutes that include four weeks of student teaching. Because states have begun stepping up their requirements for Teach For America participants, most…

Although most teachers are finished with their formal education, their desire to learn has not been extinguished. As important as initial teacher and administrator preparation are, the ability of a school leadership team to maximize the potential of each staff member is perhaps even more important to helping each student realize his or her…

During a career spanning five decades, Edward Zigler has combined scholarly research with public service to promote national and state policies that are good for all children. Often called "the father of Head Start," he served on the planning committee for the program in 1965 and became the first director of the Office of Child…

Critics of Head Start contend that many programs spend too much money on programs extraneous to children. On the other hand, Head Start advocates argue that the families of severely disadvantaged children need a broad range of services. Given the available evidence, it has been impossible to assess the validity of these claims. In this study, we…

The primary research question for this project was whether a streamlined, relatively inexpensive, counseling-based program that assists low-income high school students with the college and financial application processes can significantly increase college enrollment rates. The intervention was designed to test the hypothesis that lack of…

Research studies on service learning and teacher education have concluded that one of the major challenges is the lack of assessment studies that document the impact of service learning on students' academic development. In this research study, the perceptions of 65 preservice teachers on service learning were assessed. The major goals of the…

This is the first interim report of the congressionally mandated National Study of Student Support Services (SSS), a federally funded grant program designed to help economically disadvantaged students achieve success at the postsecondary level. The program is intended to facilitate disadvantaged students' high school completion, entry into and…

The State of Ohio has been offering successful supplementary programs in the basic skills under the Education Consolidation Improvement Act Chapter 1 for over 20 years. Almost all Ohio school districts provide Chapter 1 services. An average of 140,000 children have been served over the past five years. Most are from migrant and other low income…

This study is one of the "knowledge development" activities mounted in conjunction with research, evaluation, and development activities funded under the Youth Employment and Demonstration Projects Act of 1977 (YEDPA). It focuses on the impacts of Job Corps participation on a large group of participants after 18 months to two years.…

The fundamental features of a bilingual after-school program designed to raise the level of and improve the attitudes toward school achievement on the part of a group of elementary school youngsters is presented in this document. The description traces the evolution of design and practice in the programs' structure methodology, in its training and…

Even Start is a national program of early childhood and adult education to improve family literacy. This document is a series of four appendices which accompany the National Evaluation of the Even Start Family Literacy Program, a 4-year effort to assess projects, participants, and effects of Even Start. Appendix A provides in-depth description of…

The degree to which intellectual development can be enhanced by systematic early educational intervention, and the relative power of early versus later intervention as a preventive measure against mild retardation and academic failure, were the central issues tested in the Carolina Abecedarian Project. The project was designed for infants and…

A literature review examined the extent to which public funds for adult basic education and the guidelines under which funding is granted are meeting the needs of the target population as delineated by law. Research was limited to adult basic education programs funded by Federal and state monies and operated through the public school systems of…

This volume (and volume 2 of this report) are products of the knowledge development effort implemented under the mandate of the Youth Employment and Demonstration Projects Act of 1977 (YEDPA). This report on assessment of the Job Corps presents a large array of studies ranging from rigorous impact and benefit-cost evaluations to survey of…

This report contains evaluations of various phases of the Vocational Exploration in the Private Sector Program (VEPS). (VEPS is designed to provide youth with exposure to jobs available in the private sector through observation of such jobs, instruction, and, if appropriate, limited practical experience so long as the participant does not…