In U.S. colleges and universities, much attention has been focused on the need to improve teaching quality and to involve students in the learning process. At the same time, many faculty members are faced with growing class sizes and with time pressures due to research demands. One useful technique is to divide the class into small groups and…

This document is the outcome of a project conducted in Massachusetts to apply the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics' (NCTM) "Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics" to adult basic education (ABE) learning environments. The first chapter describes the work of the Math Team, a committee of 22 adult basic…

This digest provides a brief overview of a research project carried out by the National Center for Research on Cultural Diversity and Second Language Learning on integrating language and culture in the social studies. It is suggested that there is a need to understand the academic language competencies necessary for students to function…

The resource guide, designed for Australian educators in need of information about or skills in cross-cultural communication, lists print and audiovisual materials, personnel, and current projects in intercultural communication. Its contents were gathered by database search, survey, and interview. Introductory chapters describe the guide's…

This report sketches the main activities and developments within the Centre for Adult and Continuing Education (CACE), University of the Western Cape, South Africa. It begins by situating the work within the national context. Administration is discussed in terms of changes in staffing, committee work of staff, funding, and building of…

The goal of the project described here was to improve the quality of postsecondary education by offering institutions of higher learning information on currently funded educational projects through an interactive database, the Educational Resources Directory (ERD), which contains information on new methods, curricula, and educational technology.…

The Mainstreaming Minority Women's Studies Program (MMWSP) is discussed, in this pamphlet. Since its launching in 1988, the program has grown to include 13 public and private institutions, with 13 participating projects. The research centers involved in the program are addressing the multiple realities of women in their ethnic, racial, and class…

Central to this collection of nine papers is the unifying theme of excellence and quality in the American educational system with emphasis on the role of educational technology. Although each paper addresses a different audience, the content of each is similar with respect to the U.S. Department of Education's role in providing funds for such…

The University of Pittsburgh Program for the Study of Knowledge Use is conducting methodological research on knowledge use and school improvement. The Pittsburgh Program, established in 1978, is an interdisciplinary program designed to conduct research, provide instruction, and offer technical services. Specifically, the purposes of the program…

This study reports three-year, service-utilization patterns of the Primary Mental Health Project (PMHP)--an innovative school mental health program that uses nonprofessional child-aides as help-agents with maladapting primary graders. The PMHP model delivers, with relatively small cost increments, approximately 10 times more service than…

Advanced Education Projects (AEPs) are a series of multidisciplinary, advanced experiments in educational computing supported by IBM and currently in progress at 19 leading universities. Each AEP has established a series of curricular experiments to explore the use of workstations and network technologies as part of the instructional process. The…

The report begins with a statement from the National Science Foundation (NSF) director, followed by a series of research notes summarizing research findings and results during the year 1989. Chapter 1, "Research Collaborations," describes some examples of the collaborations between universities, industry, and government in astronomy,…

This paper is the final report of a multi-year project sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) in 1987 through 1990. The main objectives of the research summarized were to: investigate the non-parametric approach to the estimation of the operating characteristics of discrete item responses; revise and strengthen the package computer…

Rural schools in the western region states of California, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada are facing enormous challenges due to major shifts in the demographics of the region. Rapid growth in student enrollment, particularly of minority and limited English proficient students, the increasing rate of rural poverty and homelessness, and a projected…

This digest examines the organization of and international studies conducted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). The IEA is a non-profit, private association that conducts international comparative studies on schools and aids the research community in developing international tests and statistical…