Electronic books, often electronic versions of popular children's illustrated books, have the same words and illustrations as their printed versions, but also can read aloud individual words, phrases, and stories, can pronounce individual syllables in a word, and can provide animated clues to word meanings by animating and labeling selected…

Washington's Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board (WTECB) conducted research to identify components that constitute a content definition of career development by relating history, defining nomenclature, identifying issues, and describing the various approaches to such standards. Past efforts to establish academic and career…

This report responds to Delaware state legislation requiring the development of proposed revised regulations for the classification of students as learning disabled (LD). The report first describes the current system, noting that in 1997 15 percent of the student population were served under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and over…

Mexican Americans were legally defined as Whites as a result of treaty obligations with Mexico that expressly allowed Mexicans to become U.S. citizens. Federal laws of the time required that an alien be White to become a U.S. citizen. The government of Mexico and the U.S. Department of State pressured the U.S. Census Bureau to reclassify Mexican…

This paper reviews current developments in the field of emergent literacy (the study of reading and writing behaviors that develop into conventional literacy). The review includes studies that look at preschoolers' emerging literacy in homes, day-care environments, and kindergartens and that focus on children's development of literacy knowledge…

This newsletter issue reviews the research and literature on issues and best practices in programs to facilitate the transition of students with disabilities to adult life. First, the definition of transition services under the 1997 Reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is presented and explained. Next, a…

Working with postmodern ideas, this book questions the search to define and measure quality in the early childhood field and its tendency to reduce philosophical issues of value to purely technical and managerial issues of expert knowledge and measurement. The book argues that there are ways other than the "discourse of quality" for…

This book discusses the poor self-image of children with learning disabilities, reviews the history of identifying and serving children with learning disabilities, and addresses the need to serve children who are failing in school but do not qualify as having a learning disability. The book emphasizes the role and responsibility of the school for…

This document provides a comprehensive list of best practices associated with effective and efficient programs for students with various disabilities: social/behavioral, sensory, physical, and cognitive and/or communicative. It is intended to assist in the design and implementation of least intrusive, chronologically age-appropriate, gender and…

Uninformed of the power of play as an educational tool, many people view play as a waste of time and call for a return to teaching basic academic skills during the period of early childhood. This chapter demonstrates that play is a major vehicle for learning, focusing on the dynamics of sociodramatic interaction that are integral to understanding…

Discussed are four issues of importance to educational planners who want to implement nonformal education programs: (1) definitional and identity issues--what nonformal education is; (2) policy issues--role of nonformal education in the new distribution of goods and power; (3) institutional issues--the delivery process; and (4) curricular issues.…

Major reform in the teaching profession involves (1) a shift from the view of teaching as a lifelong career, (2) a broadened definition of who a teacher is, and (3) a system of teacher self-renewal that involves national coordination, focuses on intrinsic awards, and includes rank differentiation among classroom teachers. (CS)

State-adopted definitions of the term "severely handicapped" and certification requirements for teachers of severely handicapped students were surveyed. Seventy percent of the states had some type of definition and state education agencies (SEAs) required general special education, categorical, or specialized certification for teachers of severely…

Concerns about misuse of "poor self-concept" are expressed. Criticisms center around uncertainty of basic assumptions about values Blacks and Indians place upon themselves, and particularly on deemphasis of that part of self-concept dependent on group identity. Before educators can talk about bolstering poor "self-concepts," certain socioeconomic…

Describes rural education in terms of its traditional values, characteristics, most persistent problem (recruiting and retaining qualified teachers), and ultimate challenge. (Author/AH)