Reviews Michigan Kinship Project, a case management approach that is competency based and designed to assist child welfare staff members in working effectively with relatives as foster parents. Focuses on attention to culture, family participation and empowerment, systematic assessment, and individualized and comprehensive services. Provides case…

Examines the efforts of an elementary private school principal to create a motivating school climate. Discusses four ecological principles: (1) the development of activities that recognize individuality and demand involvement and adaptation; (2) the expansion of resources to the whole school community; (3) the interdependence of activities at each…

Two studies illustrate how omitting faculty rank as a predictor variable from gender equity studies of faculty salaries can lead to incorrect conclusions about gender discrimination. One uses hypothetical data constructed so there is no gender difference in salary, but omission of academic rank skews the results. The second uses data from a…

A Virginia Commonwealth University study found medical school faculty spent over 89,000 scheduled hours teaching 674 medical students in 1994-95. Faculty-to-student ratio was 1 to 3.35. Residents spent nearly 79,000 hours training undergraduate medical students. Total annual cost was $69,992 per undergraduate medical student. State funds…

Asserts that increasing inter-agency conflict is detrimental to needs of children and families. Presents example of one agency (Educational Psychology Service), suggesting that its pressures are common to all agencies and that recent policies conspire to enhance the power of systems rather than of children and families. Discusses effective…

An ethnographic case study of teacher collaboration and decision making in restructuring a junior high school (750 students, 49 teachers) is presented, and implications for low-achieving African American students are discussed. The study suggests that school, community, and national contexts influence educators involved in restructuring efforts.…

Preservice teachers were led in a subtly biased class discussion on sex bias, then asked to rate the discussion's gender equity. Students also discussed videos about equity, calculated class opinions about biased situations, and heard lectures. Most students considered the class discussion equitable. The intervention increased their awareness of…

Examines the operation of the Downtown Open School in Minneapolis, which serves children of parents who work downtown. Describes how the school follows the structure of a Basic School, focusing on effectively connecting classrooms and resources to enrich the curriculum. Details school characteristics, including mixed-grade classrooms, grade-level…

Looks at the lives of two well-known writers to explore how diverse experiences produce literate adults. Discusses Agatha Christie and Jack London who used reading and writing to earn a living and to gain international reputations. (MG)

Using Argentina as a sample case study, presents a classroom unit designed to explain the implications for world peace of nuclear weapons development. Employs a policy analysis model to make an indepth examination of the values underlying all government policy decisions. Includes unit topics and procedures for the exercise. (NL)

Five case studies of implementation of instructional policy changes at the classroom level by elementary-school mathematics teachers are discussed. The case studies focus on California's new Mathematics Framework. The interaction between teacher practice and policy is emphasized. Teachers' inherited beliefs, knowledge, and existing practices are…

Results are reported from an investigation into the influence of subject-specific coursework in the development of pedagogical content knowledge in English through contrasting case studies of six beginning English teachers, only three of whom graduated from teacher education programs. Implications for teacher education policy, research, and…

Evaluates "Facing Today and the Future: Choosing to Participate," a resource book about citizenship in which students are asked to think about their role in the U.S. democracy through an investigation of case studies about individuals and groups who have tried to make a difference. Recommends this volume as a valuable resource for…

Explores aspects of successful foreign language teaching and learning that could be pertinent to the design of school policies; defines the current conception of "communicative competence"; discusses how cultural studies can be related to foreign language instruction; and describes a model policy developed during case studies across various…

Home school research studies--surveys, case studies, and comparison studies--have primarily focused on the immediate environment of the home. Future investigations should expand to include the characteristics of other surrounding environments that may influence the home schooling process. (BJV)