This report examines the development of school choice policies as an element of educational reform, describes open enrollment as one form of school choice, outlines other types of school choice programs, describes Minnesota's various forms of educational choice, explores arguments for and against choice, and discusses issues and concerns for…

This collection of essays, in honor of child psychiatry pioneers Stella Chess and Alexander Thomas, focuses on their idea that important life outcomes are the product of ongoing interactions between a child's behavioral style and the complimentarity or lack of fit of the parenting environment. Following an introduction, the remaining chapters are:…

The attitudes of parents toward a uniform student dress code were surveyed at a Chicago (Illinois) public school. Subjects were 15 Black parents (10 females and 5 males) and 15 Hispanic American parents (10 females and 5 males) who answered a questionnaire sent home with their children. The questionnaire examined attitudes toward designer clothing…

This monograph offers six papers which present a model to assist in developing instructionally differentiated programming based on individual needs for students with behavioral disorders. The first three chapters focus on underlying philosophies. A paper by Myron Swize titled "Colorado's Needs-Based Approach" stresses that it is more…

The original "Bayley Scales of Infant Development" (BSID) (Bayley 1969) have been among the most popular measures of performance and aptitude of infants. In the present study the reliability and construct validity of mental and motor scores on the revised Bayley Scales of Infant Development-II (BSID-II) were investigated. A national…

This study examined 10 kindergarten teachers' use of instructional time to determine its relationship to student learning. Data were collected through classroom observations of student time-on-task and teacher-student interactions at 3-minute intervals over the course of 2 half-hour sessions with each teacher and his or her pupils. It was found…

This practicum focused on the problem of lack of involvement of the parents of 32 mainstreamed fifth grade students with special learning needs. Evening workshops were conducted for parents and their at-risk, mainstreamed students in fifth grade. Sessions focused on the use of computers, manipulatives, make and take home instructional games, study…

This paper discusses and maps the participation of girls in sport in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). A survey instrument was administered to a stratified random sample of 1,048 young people. Stratification of the sample was designed so that: (1) 80 respondents would be selected from each grade level (K-12); (2) each of the ACT school…

Six papers address issues in the transition of students with disabilities into the adult world of work. The first paper by Richard Ashcroft and titled "Attachment and Transition for Troubled Youth," reviews the literature on attachment, transition, social skills, and troubled youth and school, and offers a transition strategy which…

A study examined how teachers' attitudes and beliefs affect their enactment of literature-based curriculum materials, whether student attitudes differ in accordance with the teacher's orientation, and whether student achievement in reading and writing differ in whole language and traditional classrooms. Two "whole language" and two "traditional"…

Highlighting typical days in a variety of whole-language classrooms, this book describes learners of all ages, beginning with a home day-care setting through preschool programs and elementary classrooms to a junior high and high school. The book also describes a special education site and an English-as-a-Second Language classroom, and concludes in…

A fifth-grade teacher researched the experts, observed master teachers, and experimented to find out what worked best for her and her students as she made the transition from the basal to the process approach to teaching the language arts. Taking courses and meeting with others helped support her decision to change. During the process of change,…

A study of Hmong adult immigrants in a Hmong literacy class investigated four aspects of their learning behaviors: specific behaviors manifested in the literacy classroom; overt learning strategies used for literacy learning; major motivations; and specific uses for Hmong literacy skills. Data were gathered through observation, interviews,…

This conference presentation describes study groups as a mechanism for changing teacher behavior. The history of study groups is discussed, beginning with the first American study groups organized by Benjamin Franklin; the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle; the waning of study groups in the early 20th century as college enrollment…

This ethnographic study examined two bilingual, ethnic-minority children in a developmentally appropriate kindergarten to discover how they worked and played in learning centers. A Vietnamese-Cambodian-American girl and an Indian-American boy were observed two to three times per week throughout the school year. The two children's interactions with…