Presents data about the decision-making processes leading to a suggestion of committal to care for a sample of Norwegian children. Suggests that parent characteristics, primarily substance abuse and psychiatric illness, were the main reasons for suggesting committal to care, while the children themselves were fairly invisible in the process.…

Schools participating in the League of Schools Reaching Out, a national reform project, offer multiple examples of practices to increase family and community involvement. These numerous efforts exist without benefit of a clear, comprehensive, and supportive policy. Developing such a system must be a national priority. (SLD)

A project to improve the writing skills of children (grades 4-10) who are deaf included instruction for teachers in the process approach to teaching writing and a data collection and analysis phase to assess short-term effects on students' writing. Pretest-posttest results showed dramatic improvement in students' writing, particularly in…

Distance education applications are growing, fueled by pressing needs, advancing technology, lean budgets, and new partnerships. Programs, such as the University of Wisconsin's, are successful for various reasons. Greater faculty involvement, improved course design, planning, increased staff support, faculty training, participation in…

When school organizational processes were measured (including a survey of 2,800 students) for 12 career ladder schools, the Missouri program demonstrated a positive impact on teachers and schools. Survey results from 100 teachers indicate that work-redesign efforts of the program have differential effects on teachers with various experience…

Ira Gordon's parent education model began to be applied in the Follow Through Parent Education Program in Richmond, Virginia, in the late 1960s. Parent educators from the community made home visits and initiated home-school learning cycles. The assessment and future of the program are discussed. (BC)

For parent involvement initiatives to be successful, they should be part of a focused school improvement process. In New Haven's School Development Program, parents are involved at all levels of school life, through general support of educational programs, participation in daily activities, and school planning and management. (BC)

The GI Bill is seen as the most revolutionary and radically empowering federal legislation to affect American higher education in the 20th century. The bill gave African American veterans more access to higher education than ever before, at government expense, and helped improve the quality of education at black colleges. (MSE)

Describes ways in which Hawaii's Kamehameha Prekindergarten Education Program (PREP) considers culture in developing program components. PREP makes connections to the home culture an ongoing process. Incorporating culture into educational activities for preschoolers occurs in three areas: making connections through familiar materials, language,…

Teachers of 76 preservice courses responded to a survey concerning the effectiveness of a British Department of Education and Science grant program in attracting and retaining quality teacher trainees in the three areas of mathematics, physics, and craft/design/technology. Results are reported and analyzed. The dropout rate was found to be about 7…

Sixty-two preschool and kindergarten programs were examined with regard to various instructional practices. An observations protocol was developed to assess social and motivational effects of instructional practice in early childhood education programs. Program participants who had relatively high scores on the social context subscales had…

Ten state education agencies participated in a satellite teleconferencing project which trained 128 attorneys as due process hearing officers. High-quality instruction was designed and methods were developed to ensure that participants were "on task." Satellite teleconferencing is concluded to be a compelling option for cost-effectively…

Evaluated abstinence-based adolescent pregnancy prevention program, Project Taking Charge, a combined sex and vocational education program used with 136 adolescents and 126 parents. Evaluation was unable to establish a link between changes in sexual attitudes and changes in sexual behavior, as none of the attitude variables changed significantly…

The results of recent restructuring of Australia's higher education system, particularly through university mergers with other institutions, are examined. Analysis of the La Trobe University-Lincoln Institute of the Health Sciences merger focuses on goals and academic rationale, the first three years, and likely future trends. (Author/MSE)

It is argued that, despite the special character of higher education and its institutions, the principles of the Total Quality Management approach (continuous improvement, consistent quality, staff/student participation, meeting customer needs, coordination, management procedures that detect poor quality and encourage good quality) can contribute…