Innovative work being done in the area of educational assessment is explored, focusing on the experiences of the State Collaborative on Assessment and Student Standards of the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). The following projects currently being carried out by the CCSSO are described: (1) the Secondary Academic Standards and…

Noting that family involvement in education is important, this report describes and evaluates the Parents Sharing Books (PSB) program which was designed to encourage parents to become involved with their middle-school children's education. The report notes that the program was implemented over a 2.5 year period and had the following goals:…

A school/community partnership in Louisville, Kentucky, the Jefferson County Public Schools/Gheens Professional Development Academy, is described. This report provides a framework for assessing Jefferson County School System reforms in the past 8 years or more designed to enhance student success in learning. A Spiral of Assessment was used to…

The Early Childhood Program (ECP) at Suffolk County Community College (SCCC) was established to train students in the instruction of young children by providing them with theoretical knowledge, skills training, and practical experience. This report provides information on the philosophy, structure, and outcomes of the ECP. The first section…

Two papers address integration of students with disabilities and the implementation of change in special education services in Winnipeg (Manitoba, Canada) schools. The first paper briefly describes such Winnipeg programs as Project CHAMPS, which focuses on establishing enabling learning environments; the furtherance of human rights and…

The 7 newsletter issues presented here review the efforts of 10 Midwestern community colleges to achieve greater leadership diversity on their campuses. Called Beacon projects (or collectively, the Beacon Project) after the grant that provided the funding for these efforts, the projects described cover a wide range of approaches. Among them are…

In 1991, Saint Mary's University (SMU) (Canada) and Beijing Normal University (BNU) (China) began an 18-month joint teacher education project intended to meet professional needs of BNU foreign language teachers. The project had three components: professional development of teachers; adaptation of the existing national curriculum to meet special…

Because of a need for information about the structure, staffing, physical space, and types of activities of media service departments at colleges and universities, a study was conducted to gain a snapshot of media service programs at 4-year institutions with student enrollments between 5,000 and 10,000 students in 1992 and 1993. A 47-item…

This report outlines and evaluates the 1992-93 accomplishments of the South Carolina Center for Teacher Recruitment and addresses future directions the Center and its programs will be taking. Following a historical overview and a profile of the South Carolina teacher, the main body of the document evaluates the following programs: (1) Minority…

The activities and accomplishments of the Success for All program are described. Success for All is a school-based achievement-oriented program for disadvantaged students in prekindergarten through grade 5. The program is designed to prevent or intervene in the development of learning problems in the child's early years by effectively organizing…

This report presents seven case studies of programs across the country that have implemented innovative changes in the special education continuum. Telephone or in-person interviews with the program administrators were used to collect data. This report includes a summary of that information and a brief analysis of findings concerning common and…

There is growing consensus that when substance abuse prevention efforts reach children at an early age, they hold promise for reducing abuse in later years. This 87-item annotated bibliography on substance abuse prevention, developed by the National Program Office of Free to Grow in collaboration with the National Center for Children in Poverty,…

This Digest discusses School-to-Work (STW) programs, which are aimed at developing an integrated secondary school curriculum that facilitates students' transition from school to the workplace. It addresses school-based learning in STW programs, especially the practices that language arts teachers can use in classrooms to meet STW goals. The Digest…

English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students often finish their language courses without ever having an opportunity to interact with native English speakers or without getting an idea of what the target culture is really like. Interactive videoconferencing can help students gain insight into the target culture when they are using conversational…

This report presents summaries of federally-assisted and state (Virginia) funded programs as required by Public Law 100-146, The Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act Amendments of 1987. Information presented for each of the 55 programs includes: (1) the administering agency; (2) the legislation enabling the provision of…