"Expanding Minds, Exploring Futures" describes a national pilot program supported by the National Science Foundation to give undergraduate students early field experience in K-12 schools, serving as classroom resources while getting a taste of a career in teaching. The American Association of Community Colleges, the Council of Independent…

The way school students understand work through their paid part-time work and participation in school-based apprenticeships has the potential to inform career decision making and further education pathways. Through classroom-based interventions this project sought to assist student's and teacher's understandings of 'authentic' work experiences.…

There is concern that low-income children might be coming to school without eating breakfast and still not be participating in the School Breakfast Program (SBP) for a variety of reasons, including a perceived stigma associating school breakfast participation with poverty. One approach to increasing participation in the SBP is to offer free…

The purpose of this project was to study instructional practices useful in improving the academic achievement of all students, particularly African American students. AEL staff believed that the approach of working closely with school and district personnel to provide professional development and exemplary culturally responsive instructional…

The purpose of this report is to document the pilot testing of two culturally responsive curriculum units (CRCUs) and inform AEL/Edvantia staff about how the units could be improved. Culturally responsive curriculum units are based on five principles of culturally responsive teaching: (1) high expectations; (2) cultural competence; (3) active…

The Teacher Education Department at the University of Indianapolis has completed a two-year pilot program to enable student teachers to digitize their capstone portfolio for the student teaching experience. The Exit from Program Portfolio for Initial Preparation Programs, the third and final benchmark for completion of the licensure program, is…

Data on private school finance are not available to inform educational policy discussions about private education. Because of interest in private school finances, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) contracted with the Pelavin Research Center of the American Institutes for Research to explore the feasibility of collecting data…

Learning in the wholetheme approach is defined as reorganizing one's own intuitive knowledge base, as opposed to storing facts. This presentation discusses several thematic organizers to illustrate their role as a teaching tool in helping learners reorganize their own intuitive knowledge base. Intimately tied to the brain's ground-figure processes…

This research was a pilot study that evaluated the impact of relationship schemas and the quality of children's friendships in children's person perception. This study extends previous work in this area in three ways by: (1) examining how children integrate multiple types of information to form impressions of others; (2) evaluating the impact of…

This pilot study sought to extend K.L. Hutchinson and J.W. Neuliep's (1993) research regarding the relationship between parental modeling of communication apprehension (CA) and the development of children's CA. Furthermore, the study examined this relationship within the context of Latino families. Subjects were 82 fifth graders attending a…

The Accelerated Reader (AR) program enables free-standing computer-assisted assessment of comprehension of "real books." It is a curriculum-based assessment that summarizes and analyzes results to enable teachers to monitor both the quantity and quality of reading practice engaged in by the student. It is voluntarily self administered by…

Noting that prevention is the key to healthy development of the youngest children in Illinois, the Birth to Three Project is working to develop a comprehensive, coordinated system of services for expecting families and children under 3 years of age. This progress report details the first year implementation of the All Our Kids (AOK): Birth to…

This is the final annual report of a 4-year (1997-2001) third-party evaluation of the Structure of Intellect (SOI) Model Schools Pilot Program in Oregon. The SOI program was developed based on the learning theories and Structure of Intellect Model attributed to J. Guilford. The program used a combination of structured curriculum in the form of…

Success by Eight is a pilot program of the Fairfax County (Virginia) Public Schools for students in kindergarten through grade 2. The initiative is designed to provide a group of six pilot schools with training and additional resources in implementing a specific set of components to prepare students for the third grade. These components are: (1)…

This report presents the findings of year 2 (July 1998-June 1999) of the third-party evaluation of the effectiveness of the Oregon Structure of Intellect (SOI) Model Schools Pilot Program, a program based on the learning theories and Structure of Intellect model attributed to J. Guilford. The SOI program, developed by R. and M. Meeker, uses a…