This study examined whether private school attendance provides a net benefit with regard to educational achievement and attainment. Results of using additive models which control for family, individual and school variables found that most, but not all, outcome differences attributable to between-sector differences in student attributes.…

Examines relationship between employment earnings and farm wives' decisions to work off-farm. Examines effects of wives' human capital, home factors, and labor market on work decisions and earnings. Education, experience, debt, and farm size were stronger influences on wives' decisions than on their earnings variations, once employed. (TES)

Children's responses to an alternative model over three lessons were described and their learning assessed in a posttest. Their responses and performances were compared to that of a similar group of children learning through a conventional number line model. The two models were compared from practical and theoretical viewpoints. (Author/CW)

Examines trends in the certification, hiring, and assignment of minority teachers in New York City over the past decade, drawing on published data, interviews, and a survey of new teachers seeking jobs. In attempting to provide minority youth with role models, the city may be denying students equal access to fully qualified teachers. (DM)

Discusses getting children to focus as much on the process by which they do their research as on the content of the research itself. Describes a project with fifth grade students in which children orchestrate their own reading, writing, and talking as they investigate their topic. (SR)

Describes telecommunications technology available to school library media specialists for use with distance education programs. A needs assessment process developed by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction is explained, and a sidebar describes distance education programs currently available nationally over satellite and cable TV. (LRW)

The paper outlines the rationale and development of curriculum-based measurement (CBM) and its empirical support; summarizes two reading models (Chall's stages of reading development and LaBerge and Samuels' model of automaticity); and discusses how CBM, with its use of oral reading rate measures, and the reading models may validate each other.…

The Department of Surgery at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine has developed a multidisciplinary clerkship that melds traditional and nontraditional clerkship features within an organizational structure that places the teaching, curriculum, and student evaluation responsibilities in the hands of the faculty. (MLW)

The last decade has shown a steady increase in the introduction of problem-based learning (PBL) in the education of health professionals. A variety of medical and dental schools have implemented PBL using different formats incorporating self-directed and small-group learning, illustrating the many options this combination of techniques offers.…

Describes a new model for evaluating instructional software that focuses on the extent to which students learn the skills a software package is intended to teach. Results of a field test of fifth grade students are reported, and implications of the initial evaluation of the model are discussed. (14 references) (LRW)

Described is Creative Problem Solving (CPS), a model which may be employed to help integrate higher-order thinking skills into elementary science instruction. An example of the use of this model is presented. (CW)

Introduces a four-step process of clustering to help students integrate their reading and writing skills to produce better papers in their college courses. Provides students writing samples from before and after clustering. (MG)

Describes the Norwegian government's "barns oppvekskstar," a closely intertwined set of laws and value systems overseeing children's education, health, and social well-being. Although delivery of local services cannot be adequately evaluated since decentralization, the Norwegian case illustrates how parents, teachers, government…

Discusses national standardized testing versus testing reform and provides an overview of the alternative assessment movement and its relationship to the school library media specialist. Highlights include criticisms of standardized testing; theoretical assumptions for alternative assessment; research and practice related to specific alternative…

Discusses a possible national education computer network that would include elementary, secondary, and higher education institutions. Topics addressed include Internet; common standards; distributed computing; open access; equity concerns; and examples of two successful public school networks in Virginia and Texas that are linked through the…