Five elementary special education students were mainstreamed to a regular classroom for portions of their school day. A support team, consisting of the school psychologist, the principal, and the guidance counselor, was established to monitor their progress and provide assistance with both behavioral and educational problems. Peer tutors were…

This practicum was designed: (1) to familiarize elementary school teachers with pertinent measurement and evaluation concepts and tests; (2) to delineate the teacher's role in the referral process and to provide selection criteria to identify potential referrals more accurately; (3) to provide information on the interpretation of aptitude test…

The goal of this project was to increase regular teacher attendance and active participation during multidisciplinary team (MDT) conferences held to ensure appropriate decisions regarding eligibility, placement, and programming of special needs students. The school psychologist, as a member of the team in the target school in Dade County, Florida,…

A study was conducted at Rochester Community College, in Minnesota, to compare pass rates in a college-level mathematics class for mathematically underprepared students who enrolled in developmental courses and those who did not. The study population consisted of 73 students enrolled in Math 103, while data were collected on the student's final…

This practicum project sought to increase teachers' awareness of handicapping conditions and of the role of support service personnel, and to encourage them to make more appropriate and more timely referrals of potential special education students. The project's goals were to enable teachers in two targeted elementary schools to: understand the…

This developmental project was designed to solve the conflict between the Center for Teacher Education at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo and the local public school districts regarding the placement of education students in public school classrooms for field work activities. The conflict arose when one major school…

This paper presents outcomes of a practicum that was designed to address a need that was created when the Ministry of Education in Ontario, Canada, mandated that all grade 9 classes be "destreamed." A review of educational literature found no methods for ensuring that classes are truly heterogeneously mixed. The practicum was designed to…

This practicum had six objectives: (1) to increase the training skills of exceptional teachers to enable them to mainstream students more successfully; (2) to increase the number of emotionally handicapped students placed in mainstream classes in elementary and middle schools; (3) to increase the number of mainstream classes attended by the…

A study was conducted to evaluate the academic success of students involved in the Saddleback Community College (California) District's pilot assessment and placement project, and to design and apply procedures for evaluating the placement instrument cut-off scores. A group of 124 entering students agreed to participate in the pilot project and…

The admissions process at Fayetteville Technical Institute (FTI) currently relies on high school class rank, prior academic performance, and an admissions interview for placement. Faculty concern about students' writing ability prompted a review of the placement test program, which resulted in a recommendation to include a measure of grammatical…

A study was conducted at the Community College of Allegheny County, in Pennsylvania, to compared the level of preparedness in an intermediate algebra course for students who placed directly into the course and those who had tested into and completed a basic algebra course. Placement test scores, algebra course grades, and repeat status were…

A program incorporating adult language competencies into adult English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) instruction is described and evaluated. In the program, a control group of upper intermediate students was taught grammatical skills by traditional methods that do not include experience-based competencies appropriate to adult instruction. An…

This practicum was designed to decrease the number of at-risk high school students who were being transferred to alternative school sites because of disruptive behavior. One strategy implemented for this project involved having the program participants stay in one class all day while the teachers came into the classroom to teach their particular…

This practicum attempted to increase parental understanding and acceptance of the process for referral, screening, testing, and selecting children for a gifted program in a northern Florida community; to improve the self-concept of children who were not found to be eligible; and to decrease the time spent by school personnel in resolving problems…

A practicum is reported that was designed to organize collaborative efforts among primary, English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), and bilingual teachers at an elementary school with a 1,200-student enrollment. The school had seen a transition from a white, middle-class to a racially mixed and transient community, with large segments from…