This article presents the universal design features that were identified during the alpha development of a scheduler software program, known as MySchoolDayOnline, for use in schools, and provides preliminary research on the usability of these features. The study presented here investigated the accessibility and usability of MySchoolDayOnline for…

The Summer Orientation Program (SOP) at the State University of New York at Buffalo (SUNY/B) is an extensive program that affects approximately 2,500 freshmen each year and involves virtually every university office that works with undergraduates. The program tries to provide students with academic, social, and physical perspectives of the…

North County Technical High School in St. Louis County, Missouri, supports the use of a full-day technical education program. The school's success in meeting skilled occupations requirements is reflected in the high rate of employment of their high school graduates in skilled occupations. (DS)

The Campbell County Public Schools (VA) developed Project ACCENT (Arts, Citizenship, Career Education to Nurture Native Talents) to allow 150 gifted and talented high school students to investigate fine arts careers through the experience and guidance of a practicing professional artist. (SBH)

Tendencies of a gifted child include intense interests, remarkable memory, abstract thinking, wonderful sense of humor, verbal ability, perfectionism, sensitivity, and curiosity. Gifted children often are not well served by public education, where in some districts the definition of who is gifted has broadened to the extent that even special…

Substance abuse among school age youth continues to be a significant and costly problem in U.S. society. Schools are asked with increasing frequency to become involved in finding and implementing solutions. A review of the literature regarding school-based substance abuse prevention programs reveals their evolution from a basic informational…

College dropout rate as a function of poor fit between institution and students has been studied extensively, but how this phenomenon operates for disadvantaged students is not adequately understood. This study examines the effects of a project that attempts to use peer relationships--tutoring and mentoring--to improve academic performance and…

Background: This paper investigates the efficacy of a treatment program for sexual offenders with special needs in comparison to treatment outcomes for mainstream sexual offenders. Follow-up data is also presented for the group of offenders with special needs. Method: Participants from the two groups were matched on four variables (risk category,…

Kanawha County Schools' replication of the Johns Hopkins Fast Paced Mathematics program has completed its first year of implementation. This program is an alternative that speeds up the rate of learning for mathematically gifted students to a pace that is consistent with their capabilities. The program served eighth grade students. The main…

This paper seeks to answer some of the questions asked by teachers and principals when a proposal for a token reinforcement system is introduced at a public school. The question of cost should not be a deterrent, since a well-planned token system puts little financial strain on a school, and the transition from tokens to social reinforcers can…

The effectiveness of a resource room program was examined by testing 162 second- through sixth-grade students who had learning problems severe enough to qualify them for special services. Both experimental and control groups gained significantly in achievement over the year-long study. (Author)

The empirical research on the economics of early educational intervention for handicapped children is reviewed and critically assessed. Analysis of 16 research reports shows that few methodologically sound economic studies have been conducted, and statements that early intervention is cost effective cannot be empirically substantiated. (Author/JDD)

A two-part study was undertaken to test common criticisms of programs for gifted high school students. The study provided no data to support the contention that gifted programs breed elitism, snobbery, indifference, conceit, or any other negative quality. (Author/DLS)

A study compared the effectiveness of the inclusion model of speech/language treatment and the traditional pull-out model of speech/language treatment on the performance of 40 African-American Head Start children with language disorders. Results indicate that there is no significant difference between the two models of speech/language treatment.…

Several current approaches to evaluation stress the importance of making explicit the conceptual structure of a program--displaying the hierarchically related transactions which explain the program's movement from a set of "inputs" to a set of desired outcomes. However, individualized programs present particular difficulties in…