This report describes a program designed to increase students' on-task behavior. The students in the sample population consisted of kindergarten, first, and fifth graders. These classrooms are located in a community in northern Illinois. The problem of student behavior adversely affecting on-task behavior was well documented through a review of…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of using picture activity schedule books to increase on-schedule and on-task behaviors of children with moderate intellectual disabilities. Four students enrolled in a self-contained classroom participated in the study. Graduated guidance, system of least prompts, and verbal prompting…

A study examined elementary school writing instruction to determine (1) how frequently students are writing, (2) when in the curriculum writing occurs, and (3) in what forms the writing occurs. Data were collected in 75 elementary classrooms in 25 midwestern schools during a 15-day period. The data deviated little from what D. Graves reported in…

Thirty-four third and fourth grade students were observed over two entire school days to examine the nature of instruction and academic responding time for LD and non-LD students in regular classrooms. Across students, a typical school day was characterized by a limited amount of academic responding (about 45 minutes). Comparison of LD and non-LD…

Thirty third and fourth grade students were observed over two entire school days to examine the nature of instruction and academic responding time for students of high, middle, and low teacher-perceived behavioral competence. Across all groups, it was found that students spent about 45 minutes in a typical school day actively engaged in academic…

The authors examine the content, time, teacher performance, and leadership policies which have been legislated in several states as a result of the national wave of discontent with the quality of education. Emphasis is on the need for implementation of these policies to be informed by recent reseacrh. (MT)

High school students were observed to investigate time-on-task and learning gains. Classroom observation and learning gain measurement showed that a lecture/discussion instructional technique led to the highest student achievement. Use of seatwork caused the least amount of achievement. (DF)

A classwide peer tutoring procedure was implemented in an urban elementary school classroom of 23 students, to improve students' spelling performance. Results indicated the untrained or collateral tutoring behaviors increased the academic response frequencies of three tutees and the weekly spelling achievement of one target tutee. (Author/DB)

It is no secret that language arts and math are the dominant features of the elementary curriculum. This is especially the case in Kindergarten through third grades. In many states, the thrust of the curriculum in the primary grades is on learning to read. After that, it is thought that students will then be able to read to learn. With that…

There will always be circumstances in which children do not follow adults' instructions or are unwilling to participate in certain activities. When noncompliance become recurrent, a child's functioning in home, school, and community settings can be affected. Often, these children miss out on a variety of experiences by virtue of being unengaged.…

Secondary vocational-technical education programs in Mississippi are faced with many challenges resulting from sweeping educational reforms at the national and state levels. Schools and teachers are increasingly being held accountable for providing true learning activities to every student in the classroom. This accountability is measured through…

The Time for Mastery Program was specifically designed to minimize the time costs of mastery learning by maximizing the use of instructional time to the fullest advantage. The program was implemented by three high school districts in suburban Chicago during the 1984-85 academic year. This article presents a brief description of the program, as…

Twenty-six elementary grade learning disabled (LD) students were observed over two entire school days to examine the extent to which students in different service delivery levels were provided with varying instructional approaches and opportunities to learn. Several differences were found in instructional approaches: less severely learning…

This document provides administrators and instructional supervisors a framework for thinking about teaching and learning in secondary schools and suggests specific focal points for working with teachers to maintain and improve teaching effectiveness. The first section contains a discussion of instructional time and its meaning for secondary…

Student opportunity to learn may be the critical variable in explaining student engagement and subsequent achievement. Lower-ability students are systematically discriminated against in quality of instruction and curricular content and in use of learning time. Suggestions regarding teacher preparation to offset these patterns are made. (MT)