Instructional conversations (ICs) represent an alternative approach to the instruction of culturally and linguistically diverse populations. It has instructional intent, but appears to be a spontaneous conversation with natural language interactions. Successful ICs depend on identification of a text-specific theme that is significant and tied to…

To identify factors motivating African Americans to attend graduate or professional schools, questionnaires were mailed to nearly 1,600 African American journalism or mass communication students at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). A second objective was to determine locations and schools from which the University of South…

This report focuses on the dramatic increase in and intensity of binge drinking (consuming more than five drinks in one sitting) on American college and university campuses--now considered the number one substance abuse problem in American college life. Anecdotal evidence indicates that many students drink more, more frequently, and with the…

Findings of a study that examined how effectively instructional leadership and instructional climate predict student learning outcomes are presented in this paper. Surveys to determine principals' self-perceptions and teachers' perceptions of instructional climate were completed by 72 principals and 1,523 teachers. Achievement results for 9,415…

This study utilized illuminative, ethnographic evaluation to examine the range and complexity of minority student programming at the six public institutions of higher education in Washington, namely Evergreen State College, Eastern Washington University, Central Washington University, Western Washington University, Washington State University, and…

This study presents a descriptive account of the effects of two computer based tutorial programs used in high school Pre-Algebra and English classes via an interactive computer technology laboratory environment. The laboratory settings described, joint enterprises developed by a state university, the United States Air Force, and two public school…

After describing the economic, social, and technological forces that aggravate the discrepancy between the emerging social structure of society and the organization of schools and necessitate educational restructuring, this document discusses renewal, reform, and restructuring as three levels of efforts toward change in schools. Brief…

This article explores the role of vision and vision-building in public schools as a tool for bringing about a redirection of educational institutions. A reanalysis of 32 interviews with teachers and principals in schools involved in Oregon's "2020 School Improvement and Professional Development" program revealed that most school goals…

This guidebook describes the Martin Luther King Program at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, a program expressly created to provide services and resources to assist the minority student in coping with any adjustment problems that may be entailed in entering a predominantly white university in a rural community. The university's supplemental…

Classical commitment studies are either sociologically oriented or based in the psychological empirical research tradition. A review of the literature reveals agreement on the multidimensionality and the contextual complexity of commitment, two principles which guide the hypotheses of the present study. This study uses the Administrator and…

This study was conducted to examine the link between occupational conditions and depressive symptoms in newly appointed teachers. Emphasis was placed on the variability among schools to which teachers were assigned. Subjects were recruited during the spring semesters of 1987-89 as final senior year seminars were being completed at teacher-training…

This study examined the role of child care in empowering low-income parents. The study, which was part of a larger evaluation of the Committee for Boston Public Housing (CBPH), compared families with children in the Washington-Beech Community Preschool (WBCP), run by CBPH, with families at the Washington-Beech Housing Development whose children…

The problem of teacher isolation and lack of collegial relationships has been extensively documented and considered one of the obstacles to improvement of instruction. The study reported here analyzed some empirical evidence about how that situation can change in junior high school science. The study investigated: (1) what happens when science…

School Based Decision Making (SBDM) was implemented in two secondary, two junior high, and three elementary schools in the Memphis City School System in Tennessee during the 1989-90 school year. The implementation process of that first year and the roles of the persons involved are discussed as well as the use of the Tennessee School Climate…

The 10 articles in this issue focus on educating the individual student and on the implications for Empire State College (New York) faculty and instructional resources. "Fulfilling Democracy's Promise through Education: The Empire State College Experiment" (Timothy Lehmann) traces the developmental history of U.S. higher education within…