During each semester of fiscal year (FY) 1990, a survey was conducted of enrollees in telecourses at Howard Community College. The purpose of the study was to assist program planners in understanding the motivations, enrollment and viewing patterns, demographics, and goals of students who enroll in telecourses. Survey responses were obtained from…

Results from the evaluation of 11 demonstration programs designed to prevent child abuse are summarized in this working paper. The programs were of three types: perinatal programs; community-wide education, information, and referral projects; and culturally relevant parent education efforts. The four perinatal programs focused on extended…

To develop and validate role-specific ideal behaviors of secondary school principals in Lebanon, this study surveyed 14 private and 6 public Lebanese secondary schools. In the first stage of the six-week data collection process, interviews with principals, teachers, and students resulted in a list of 25 role-specific behaviors for principals which…

This manual focuses on legal issues confronting schools in the area of substance abuse and provides practical policy guidance to public school managers in enforcing a substance abuse policy. After a brief introduction, section 2 examines barriers to action, commenting on several myths affecting drug abuse policy. Section 3 deals with substance…

The bibliography is intended to provide practitioners in early intervention programs with information about self-report (by parents) measures as they relate to evaluating family outcomes. Twenty-five measures are described in terms of content, format, reliability, and validity. Sources for obtaining the measures are also identified. Instruments…

This five-part paper examines the role of teacher unions in Australian education at the state level. An overview describes the organizational strength of Australia's teacher unions. Part 1, "Teacher Union Growth," presents a history, and part 2, "Teacher Unions and State Education," interprets issues involving unions and…

Over the past ten years, dramatic changes have been seen in the numbers of mildly mentally retarded students in the United States; in particular, a 30 percent decrease in the number of mildly mentally retarded students between 1976 and 1986 has been well documented. These changes have occurred in response to litigation in the federal courts,…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 25 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) superior-subordinate communication; (2) the effect of freedom of expression on role satisfaction; (3) the effects of certain risk factors on nurses'…

Validity is a central issue in use of self-report data for the investigation of teacher thinking. "Triangulation," or use of several data sets to test, corroborate and elaborate each other, is one method for increasing validity of findings. This paper illustrates a process of triangulation of data obtained by three different data…

A study examined bilingual children's composing behaviors during classroom writing and their perceptions of writing. Students' descriptions of what occurred in their day-to-day environment were analyzed using ethnographic methods. The researcher observed five subjects--bilingual students in kindergarten through third grade--for 145 hours, and…

Described are the background, rationale, research design, data collection, analysis, and findings of the Classroom Strategy Study, an investigation of 98 elementary school teachers' general strategies for coping with problem students and their ways of dealing with typical problem behaviors associated with each of 12 types of problem students.…

Concern for the dropout phenomenon among secondary learning disabled (LD) students led to a preliminary study of an urban school's decision-making structures, as well as events that influence ninth graders' behavior and decisions, increasing their risk for dropping out of high school. Data were collected from three sources: observation of school…

This paper summarizes current knowledge from research on teacher effectiveness and discusses the relationship between those findings and educational policy. Few teaching strategies have been studied in different types of environments, so validated knowledge on teacher effectiveness exists for only a few issues. Research findings discussed include:…

This student guide is part of the microcomputer version of the Career Planning System (CPS). CPS is a comprehensive instructional package designed to provide individualized career exploration and career planning experiences for students of approximately middle-school age. This version is designed to take advantage of the motivational, managerial,…

While the literature on the social development of children has increasingly stressed the importance of peer relationships, little research has examined the influence of peers in sex role development. Sex segregation in children's play from preschool through the elementary years remains the norm even though we live in a society that is increasingly…