This third annual Pennsylvania Progress Report is designed to convey to the citizens of Pennsylvania information on how well we are progressing on our road to achieving the National Education Goals. This report has three parts. The first part is a description of the major education initiatives undertaken in 1993 by Governor Casey. The second and…

Three papers by the same author address: (1) educational methods for gifted children in the regular classroom; (2) principles of enriching the gifted child's development in the home; and (3) modifying lessons to optimally challenge gifted students. The first paper is titled, "Classrooms with Growing Room." It stresses the need for gifted children…

The state plan for educational technology in Ohio has been developed to facilitate a basic understanding of the broad scope of technology and how it can affect learning positively. It is also intended to provide a framework for policy and resource allocation decision making. Massive systemic changes in curriculum, professional development, and…

The case study presented in this paper describes and articulates a beginning teacher's perceptions of the key rules, roles, and relationships within the context of the technical culture of an inner city elementary school. Data were collected through interviews, participant observations, and teacher and school produced documents. Experienced…

This study hypothesizes that a sense of personal and teaching efficacy can be explained, in part, by a historical pattern of student achievement performance and workplace context. To measure perceptions of efficacy, power, and school climate, a questionnaire was completed by approximately 1,500 elementary school teachers in the spring terms of…

This book provides reasons for the use of the case method in teacher education and argues that decisions about teacher preparation must be grounded in an understanding of how teachers learn, what they see as sources of teaching knowledge, and how their workplaces influence what and how they will continue to learn. If case studies are to support…

This study examined the effects of a computer-mediated networked learning environment on the writing of fifth grade students who used word processing to write four texts collaboratively during an 8-week period. A telecommunication network was utilized to allow the students in the experimental group to send their work via e-mail to an audience of…

Societal changes of the past three decades call for a fundamental change in the structure of the educational system and in the culture of schooling. Disadvantaged African Americans, Native Americans, and Latinos, in particular, historically have suffered from the cultural misalignment of home, school, and community. The reform of educational…

A study was conducted to provide a better understanding of the nature and the operation of the institutions in which exemplary vocational education programs exist. The study employed an interpretive ethnographic design that sought meaning and understanding from within the context of the setting. Twenty-five institutions offering exemplary…

The technical reports and working papers published by the Center for Children and Technology that are listed in this guide focus on educational technology and its relationship to student learning and school restructuring. Technical reports share research results, describe prototype designs, and address issues crucial to the Center's research…

Results from an ethnographic study reveal the meanings and social actions of teachers and administrators that were used to support a teachers' theory of empowerment. This practitioner's model offers a definition, principles, and behaviors that reflect teacher empowerment as it occurs in the school. Implications of this model for building…

This report is a descriptive summary of preliminary findings from the second year of research in 16 secondary schools in California and Michigan conducted by the Center for Research on the Context of Secondary Teaching (CRC). Further analyses of the data will proceed over the year and will be informed by comments of teachers, administrators, and…

In 1985 the Arizona Legislature established a 5-year pilot-test program for teachers, under the direction of the Joint Legislative Committee on Career Ladders. Its purpose was to implement and evaluate a process of rewarding teachers based on their actual performance levels, rather than solely on years of experience and/or accumulated college…

Massachusetts law enables the Board of Education to award grants to school committees for school-based comprehensive health education and human services programs, including the following components: comprehensive health education curriculum, school counseling and psychological services, school health services, coordination of school and community…

School reform efforts today have a personal focus that emphasizes attending to the problems faced by individual at-risk students. After outlining the impact of student dropouts, this document uses information from a review of 150 at-risk student programs described in related professional literature to describe six basic weaknesses in current…