The Strong Beginnings program, initiated by the Save the Children Fund in 1991, supports community-based activities in 20 countries aimed at reconstructing educational systems in developing countries. This report presents the vision of the Strong Beginnings program, describes its components, and describes the continuing challenge to improve access…

This paper argues that community college models, especially in developing countries, can be victims of the vocational school fallacy, which holds that that two-year vocational/technical schools that ignore a general education foundation may not be an optimal means for solving worker needs. In addition, globalization has hastened a mirroring of the…

This guide is designed to provide a framework and sequence for working jointly with adult learners to confirm their disability, assess their functional needs, select appropriate accommodations, provide instruction for using accommodations, and monitor accommodation effectiveness. In addition to procedural information, the guide contains instructor…

The Instructional Support Team (IST) process is an intensive building-based pre-referral intervention program using teams of teachers and other school professionals to assist elementary students experiencing difficulty in the classroom. This trainer's manual outlines a 3-day workshop for team training. The schedule for each day is provided, with a…

In the late 1990s the Texas Education Agency advocated the transformation of all counseling services into developmental guidance programs. This document describes the process undertaken and the lessons learned when evaluating a small, rural school district in north Texas in order to begin this model transformation. The purpose of the study was to…

The integration of technology into adult literacy promises both exciting and problematic times, especially with regard to curriculum evaluation. Different evaluation approaches have various strengths and weaknesses. A particular strength of the adversarial approach is a well-rounded evaluation with both positives and negatives identified; its main…

Noting that growing consensus about the importance of the first 5 years of life has prompted in-depth considerations about the systemic quality of early care and education in the United States, this issue of "State Education Leader" examines various aspects of early learning. Topics considered in this issue are: (1) key issues in financing early…

The purpose of this paper is to discuss how general problem-based learning (PBL) models and social-constructivist perspectives are applied to the design and development of a Web-based science program, which emphasizes inquiry-based learning for fifth grade students. The paper also deals with the general features and learning process of a Web-based…

California State Standard 7.5 is delineated in the following manner: "Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of medieval Japan." Seventh-grade students describe the significance of Japan's proximity to China and Korea and the influence of these countries on Japan; discuss the reign of…

This paper analyzes barriers to educational equality in El Salvador, using a multi-layered framework of educational opportunity. To improve educational opportunity and give the most marginalized sectors of society the possibility of changing their life circumstances requires policies that go beyond mere access to formal schooling. The model…

This study examined how constructivist teaching and the organization of the learning environment relate to student achievement. The researchers used structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine the relationships among school and teaching attributes and student achievement in reading, writing, and mathematics as measured by the Washington…

This study investigated whether individual change over time in mathematics and language differs from student to student and whether individual parameters of each of these domains were related within domain. The study also attempted to gain an understanding of individual change in student academic achievement through the application of one of the…

"Dimension" is the annual volume containing the selected, refereed, edited proceedings of each year's conference. By selecting "Models for Excellence in Second Language Education" as the 2003 conference theme, the Board of Directors of the Southern Conference on Language Teaching (SCOLT) demonstrated an eagerness to invite presentations…

This multi-year program was based on the premise a digital divide exists between the technology skill levels of public school faculties compared to those of undergraduate teacher education candidates. The Technology Mentor Fellowship Program (TMFP) matched technologically-proficient pre-service teachers with K-12 teachers to model technology as an…

This paper describes the theories and social factors that contributed to the development of competency-based training (CBT). These include behaviorism (Edward L. Thorndike), scientific management (Frederick Taylor), progressive education (John Dewey), and derivative theories including operant conditioning (B.F. Skinner), objectives-based…