The Required Academic Proficiency (RAP) program was established by the Houston (Texas) Independent School District to reduce and remediate the academic failure of students. The purpose of the RAP program was twofold: (1) to provide supplemental instruction to students identified as being at risk of failing academic subjects; and (2) to provide…

Results from 291 first-year Australian college students with learning and writing difficulties (language minorities or students from other countries) suggest a direct effect of those difficulties on performance in first-year biology. College language and learning services that address areas in which students recognize their difficulties may…

Initiatives are described that have been undertaken by the Student Development Tutorship Programme at the M.L. Sultan Technikon in South Africa, a program established in 1990 to provide assistance and support to disadvantaged students, primarily Black students from areas with inadequate facilities and instructors in the "homelands" and…

Known primarily for its tutoring and testing of grade-school and high-school students, for-profit Sylvan Learning Systems has developed interests in distance education, teacher education, English-language training, and college-level study outside the United States. The company is consciously stepping up its presence in areas associated with higher…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 15 titles deal with the following topics: methods for teaching students of English as a second language and remedial students in freshmen composition courses; Maryland community college English teachers' backgrounds and attitudes…