This study describes a program designed to increase the communication skills of at-risk students. The targeted population consists of kindergarten through third grade students in two elementary schools in a community in central Illinois. The status of family income ranges from low to high levels. Evidence for the existence of inadequate…

This report describes a program for improving active listening skills and the ability to follow oral directions. The targeted population consisted of third and fourth grade students in three different elementary schools. Two schools are located in far northern suburbs outside a large midwestern city. The other school is a southern suburb of a…

This report describes a program for improving sight word recognition and the ability to improve reading skills. The targeted population consists of a kindergarten class and a primary self-contained special education class. The schools are located in a large metropolitan city. The problem of poor sight-word recognition was documented with student…

In higher education now, educators are faced with teaching students who are not seen as exceptional, in traditional academic terms--even the exceptional ones do not seem to read habitually. The paper argues that among the elements hostile to development of writers of prose might be found elements more conducive to the development of writers of…

This paper focuses on the use of a group action research approach to help student teachers develop strategies to improve the grade point average of at-risk students. Teaching interventions such as group work and group and individual tutoring were compared to teaching strategies already used in the field. Results indicated an improvement in the…

This report describes a study undertaken in South Africa on women's leadership and the role of development education to empower women for leadership. The report is divided into the following six chapters: (1) "Women at the Crossroads"; (2) "Participatory Action Research: The Challenge of Women Researching with Women within a…

Student achievement has been low in language arts in Suburban Chicago, Illinois school districts. This action research project was designed to determine the effect of incorporating multiple intelligence strategies into the language arts curriculum. The targeted students were in the second, third, and fifth grades, in a western suburb of Chicago,…

Future leaders will have to rely upon skills that are far different from those used in the past. Action mapping serves as a meta-process for moving schools toward desired ends; it calls upon school leaders to move into action, to reflect upon such actions, and to collect stories for future reflections. This process could be helpful to a school…

The Accrediting Commission for Schools, Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) has recently developed a new protocol for accrediting schools entitled "Focus on Learning" (FoL). This monograph explains how the FoL process can influence student learning and serve as a vehicle for school improvement and accountability. The following…

Assessment "for" learning is not the same as assessment "of" learning. Assessment of learning is assessment for accountability purposes, to determine a student's level of performance on a specific task or at the conclusion of a unit of teaching and learning. The information gained from this kind of assessment is often used in reporting. Assessment…

One of the major concerns is the result of the research itself. A case was made for the necessity to clearly specific objectives, obtain appropriate measures of specified criteria, and design programs that have a high probability of achieving those objectives. A college program for student leadership is described. (Author/CJ)

Review of rural social work literature of the 1970's indicates research has primarly followed the naturalistic model defined by Taylor, rather than the positivist approach favored by Fischer. Discussed are: surveys and case studies; ethnographies; participatory/action research; historical research; positivistic research; hypothesis testing…

Teachers and researchers collaborating to implement and evaluate a pilot programme seems straightforward enough. However, unless appropriate steps are taken early to select appropriate staff and encourage shared definitions of the project's purpose, differences in understanding, as well as different priorities, values, and allegiances may…