This article examines the contextual supervision (CS) model that has been developed and applied in several practicum settings of teacher education programs over the past 12 years. The study synthesizes the research findings on the potential effectiveness of CS in assisting faculty supervisors and classroom cooperating teachers with the task of…

This conference paper discusses the results of a study on the effectiveness of Florida's multidisciplinary Family Service Planning Teams (FSPT). The FSPTs were developed to create holistic service plans to enable children with emotional disabilities to live in the community and be successful in school. The FSPTs have become the focus of service…

This document presents testimonies from a hearing discussing the drug threat in the nations schools and the issue of whether drug testing is an effective deterrent. The subcommittee conducted the hearing as part of an effort to fully understand the nations drug crisis, how it impacts different parts of our nation, and what effective drug control…

This article examines an increasingly popular alternative to government-funded voucher plans: private voucher and scholarship plans. Through the 1998-99 school year, spending on privately funded voucher programs totalled $61 million. Private vouchers began with the Golden Rule Program in Indianapolis in 1991 and was inspired by insurance CEO J.…

This framework is designed to serve as a general map for the development of English language arts curricula by schools, school districts, or collaboratives. It is not a curriculum guide. Rather, it provides a structure that local agencies can employ in planning curriculum and instruction tailored to their own needs and circumstances. This…

This paper describes the "Problem Solving for Life" training program which trains adolescents and adults with mental retardation in skills for solving social problems. The program requires group participants to solve social problems by practicing two prerequisite skills (relaxation and positive self-statements) and four problem solving steps: (1)…

The Newspaper, Part 2 section of the Proceedings contains the following 10 papers: "Newsroom Teams: A Baseline Study of Prevalence, Organization and Effectiveness" (Fred F. Endres, Ann B. Schierhorn, and Carl Schierhorn); "Hispanics & the Media: A Case Study of Coverage in 'The Dallas Morning News'" (Camille R. Kraeplin and…

This study compared the progress of 3,300 undergraduate students at Nova Southeastern University (Florida), of whom 2,410 were campus-based and 890 were distance education students. The study population consisted of all Fall Term 1993 Farquhar Center for Undergraduate Studies students, differentiating between campus-based and distance education…

Community schools are state-funded public schools, exempt from various rules and regulations in exchange for increased accountability or student performance. This Legislative Office of Education Oversight (LOEO) report examines Ohio's first 15 community schools that began during the 1998-99 school year. All 15 schools were successful about…

This report from the United States Commission on Civil Rights focuses specifically on the efforts of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to enforce Title II, Subtitle A of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits discrimination based on disability by public entities such as state and local governments. The report evaluates DOJ's…

This paper evaluates the effectiveness of an alternative-school program. The research compared 1 year of the program, where there was no parental involvement, with a second year, which included family-based interventions. It was hypothesized that family involvement would generate greater improvement in students' psychosocial functioning, academic…

This action research project implemented and evaluated a portfolio program for assessing student performance. The targeted population consisted of elementary and middle grade students in two schools. The inadequacy of traditional evaluation methods was documented by means of parent and staff surveys. Common discrepancies were found in student…

Community colleges are a crucial point of access to higher education for low-income, minority, and other underserved students. These groups are overrepresented (with respect to their share of undergraduate enrollment) in two year and less than two year post secondary institutions. The community college access mission is built on low tuition, …

Many districts are struggling with the problem of administrator retention. Hoffman (2004) identifies some of the reasons for this: (1) Increased accountability expectations; (2) Diminished or static levels of resources to support reform efforts; (3) Greater administrator vulnerability to sanctions; (4) The complex demands of government and the…

Everybody knows what happened to educational reform in the Los Angeles Unified School District. As former mayor Richard Riordan once told the author, "That's simple; LEARN failed." Indeed, the Los Angeles Educational Alliance for Reform Now, which in the 1990s created a massive civic reform coalition, fell far short of building a…