This final report documents the findings of a study designed to evaluate the quality and efficiency of early education programs for handicapped children in Louisiana during 1985-86. More than 400 classes in 65 formal programs (residential, home-based, and center-based) serving approximately 5,000 handicapped children ages 3-5 were studied. The…

The Performance Review, Analysis, and Improvement System for Educators (PRAISE) is a formative evaluation instrument designed to improve the performance of school principals. The system appears to be reliable and valid and is flexible enough to accommodate the needs of a variety of schools. Sample items and categories of the instrument include…

An analysis of longitudinal data on a sample of low-income mothers and children was conducted to identify maternal characteristics during pregnancy and infancy that predict child school adaptation during kindergarten. The sample consisted of low-income mothers recruited while receiving prenatal services from public health clinics. The children,…

A study compared child care centers determined to be of high quality and low quality along three established indicators of quality: good adult/child ratio, caregiver continuity, and caregiver training in child development. The centers were all community centers who enrolled full tuition parents. Eighty-nine families with children aged 18, 24, 30,…

Recent concern about citizenship education has resulted in the examination of how civic values are presented in the classroom. Using the 10 civic values from R. Freeman Butts'"The Revival of Civic Learning," two third grade classrooms and their teachers are observed, and the textbooks for reading, social studies, and health are examined…

The Action Oriented, Reflection Oriented (AORO) observation instrument was designed to help teachers determine their students' cognitive preferences. The assumption underlying the instrument was that learning is enhanced when teaching strategies and materials take into account the student's natural tendency toward action or reflection. AORO…

The procedures used in an ethnographic study of a classroom language learning community are described. The research was undertaken to gain insights into adult language learning taking place among students who were not foreign language majors in an elementary French class at Michigan Technological University during the 1986-87 academic year. The…

In this module, developed by the Research Applications for Teaching (RAFT) project, preservice teachers study the major types of classroom interactions which occur between teachers and students and review the research findings showing how these interactions are related to effective teaching. Much effort is spent on describing procedures for…

A study of 60 elementary and secondary math and science teachers who were nominated by their peers as effective microcomputer-using teachers was conducted to describe how peer-nominated teachers use microcomputers instructionally, and how these uses vary as a function of teacher characteristics (e.g., knowledge, attitudes) and other background…

The Infant/Toddler Program of the Louise Child Care Center began providing full time day care to young children of working parents in the fall of 1978. While delivering this service, the Center conducted a longitudinal, exploratory investigation into the responses of children and their families to a group-home day care setting. The study was…

The evaluation examined whether there was a difference in the achievement in four dimensions of communications skills (content, organization, language usage, and delivery) of students of eight K-6 teachers attending a 2-week summer institute and nine 1-6 teachers attending four inservice sessions, and whether there was a correlation between grade…

This study identified and conceptualized evidence of ideas about the nature of science to which elementary school students are exposed and the manner in which teachers provided these ideas. This was accomplished by developing a scheme for observing/analyzing classroom interaction (classroom dialogue and science activity). The scheme is…

The first volume of this final report of a large study that detailed the day-to-day workings of, and student response to, two philosophically different approaches to reading readiness as they were used in six Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) kindergartens reports on the literate environment approach. The background section explains that this approach…

According to this publication, a school's most effective tool in encouraging student success may be its control over the time the student spends working on goal-oriented learning activities--that is, time on task. This document is intended to help school administrators understand the effects of their decisions on students' learning time and…

Projects involving students more directly in research, evaluation, and teaching in Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota are described in this newsletter issue. Results of the projects seem to underscore the role that student-faculty relationships play in the growth and development of college students. It is suggested that with more student…