This handbook for classroom teachers is motivated by the need to promote academic language use among students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. First, several works providing a rationale for using student-centered instructional practices as a means of promoting student learning are reviewed. The pitfalls of using…

Part of a national research project, this study of students at risk involved elementary and high school pupils in the El Paso (Texas) area. Investigators sought answers to questions concerning the identity and characteristics of at-risk students, and school intervention programs and their effectiveness. Data were gathered on 296 students in three…

This monograph investigates issues related to the financial support of rural schools. The first section describes various state formulas and the methods used to distribute funds to rural schools. It considers questions about the adequacy of funding adjustments based on sparsity and the relationship of such adjustments to equal educational…

Testwise responses of grade-school students to multiple-choice science items and the intercorrelations between different testwiseness skills were examined in this document. A total of 134 third-grade, 133 fifth-grade, and 143 sixth-grade students from two elementary schools in a large suburban school district in Utah responded to 60 science items…

This report summarizes the Early Childhood Assessment Project, which attempted to clarify issues confronting policy makers in early childhood special education through documentation of current practices, in-depth investigation of alternative approaches, and examination of predicted social, political, economic, and educational impact of alternative…

The purpose of this study was to examine whether the mathematical structures inherent in grade 7 geometry curriculum objectives can be used to improve the communication of the objectives to students. Teacher inservice based upon geometrical properties and structures was combined with student teaching materials to try to improve student achievement…

Six American universities were studied to assess the predictive validity of Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores and other admissions data and of student language background relative to college grades for Hispanic students. Sample sizes at the universities ranged from 76 to 686 for Hispanic subjects and from 924 to 4,919 for White students. The…

This issue of "Irish Educational Studies" focuses on curriculum and learning issues and includes: (1) "Aesthetic Perspectives in Curriculum Reform" (D. Murphy); (2) "Drama: Less Talk, More Action" (M. Drury); (3)" Out of Tune with Reality: Music and the School in Ireland" (M. O'Suilleabhain); (4)…

A study was conducted to determine the contacts between agricultural extension and family farmers in Israel. Structured interviews were conducted with a representative sample of 171 smallholder farmers. Advisers of the official Extension Service and the publications of this service and farmers' monthlies were considered to have contributed to…

This learning module, which is part of a three-block series intended to help human service workers develop the skills necessary to solve the problems encountered in their daily contact with elderly clients of different cultural backgrounds, deals with French culture. The module begins with background information about the importance of…

To describe rural poverty in Wisconsin in a manner useful to educators, policymakers, clergy, and businesspersons, census statistics, primarily from 1980, were used to look separately at rural nonfarm, farm, and urban families and persons. Other census data provided comparability. As measured in 1980, 6% of urban and rural nonfarm families had…

Urging new directions for American high school education, this book outlines problems with contemporary high schools and describes the experience of small high schools (those having approximately 200 students), designed in the past 15 years, that have developed excellent and diverse alternative programs within the constraints of existing district…

School effectiveness indices (SEIs), based on regressing test performance onto earlier test performance and a socioeconomic status measure, were obtained for eight subject-grade combinations from 485 South Carolina elementary schools. The analysis involved school means based on longitudinally matched student data. Reading and mathematics…

An experimental, interdisciplinary, mastery learning course in intercultural communication--designed to help students at Santa Barbara (California) City College overcome barriers arising from language, attitudinal, nonverbal, and ethnocentric variations in communication styles--is described in this collection of documents. The collection includes…

Study habits and attitudes of American Indian students were related to classroom achievement and classroom behaviors, and strategies for improving study skills and attitudes were discussed. The Survey of Study Habits and Attitudes Form H (SSHA) was administered to 160 American Indian students in grades 7 through 12 at a reserve school in Manitoba,…