Pursuant to Virginia's House Joint Resolution No. 415, calling for the identification and treatment of truants, dropouts, and youths at risk, this interim report provides a background and framework for policies and guidelines in this area, particularly as they relate to dropping out. It then reviews existing or new programs which address related…

Based in the belief that many preschool programs have an orientation toward a developmental philosophy yet are not developmentally appropriate in program practices, this discussion contrasts developmentally and psychometrically oriented approaches, reviews literature on program design and children's needs, and provides guidelines in the areas of…

A practicum was designed to improve the self-concepts of intermediate grade students and reduce behavior problems in their class. The practicum was implemented for 10 weeks in an alternative education class of 14 low socioeconomic status students with moderate learning and behavior problems. The three strategies employed were: (1) daily peer group…

Multiple demands and pressures on teachers have increased instructor burnout, a state characterized by boredom, depression, envy, and physical and emotional fatigue. In response to the high incidence of burnout, teachers and professors may use a job diversification approach similar to one used in industry to combat boredom and monotony.…

Issues pertinent to prenatal drug-affected students are discussed in this ERIC Digest. The rising number of drug-exposed children approaching school age presents a challenge to school personnel in meeting their special needs. Topics covered are: (1) seriousness of the problem; (2) problems unique to drug-affected children; (3) creation of a…

This program manual describes the Communication Center at Joseph Kerr Junior High School in Sacramento County, California, which was established in 1975 to prevent student high risk behavior and to encourage positive attitudes in the school community. The philosophy of the Center, which is based on the theories of Rudolf Dreikurs, is described,…

The first of five volumes for Project Teach 'n' Reach, designed to help teachers of grades 1-6 in regular classrooms to teach about various kinds of handicapping conditions, is a teacher's guide. Performance objectives, activities, worksheets, and resources are listed for the use of these teachers in the implementation of their social-science and…

Designed to add to the existing knowledge base concerning the saliency of features used by children to identify isolated words, a study examined whether the method of instruction influences the extent to which various features are used for word identification and recall. Subjects, 117 kindergarten students from a suburban Buffalo, New York, school…

Through Japanses comic strips (called "manga" in Japanese) students can gain an appreciation not only for the different sensibilities of the Japanese but for similarities as well. One unit consists of an essay, a comic strip, frame by frame explanations, and questions for discussion. In total, there are nine units because odd numbers are…

Work experience programs help rural handicapped, learning disabled, and economic/culturally disadvantaged students to make the transition from school to young adulthood. Reading, mathematics, and social difficulties evident in school impact work behaviors in later life. Other factors impacting work behaviors include cultural differences, economic…

The effects of four types of variables on employment experience in the period immediately after leaving high school were examined. These four types of variables were deviance in high school, respondent attitudes measured during the senior year in high school, school services, and school staff attitudes on employment experience in the immediate…

The titles of papers in this document on impromptu or spontaneous speech are as follows: "Impromptu Speech, Structure, and Process"; "Non-Verbal Aspects of Impromptu Speech"; "Echanges, interventions et actes de langage dans la structure de la conversation" ("Exchanges, Interventions, and Speech Acts in the…

The Unit for Advanced Studies in Modern Swedish (FUMS) at Uppsala University has one of the largest collections of spontaneous present-day spoken Swedish and has housed many sociolinguistic research projects since the 1960s. The four studies generating the most empirical data are on: The Urban Dialect of Eskilstuna; The Child's Linguistic…

Intimacy as experienced in best friendships was studied with respect to sex differences and sex roles, the development of components of intimacy in childhood and adolescence, and the possible interrelationship of intimacy and ego identity. Instruments included items from: (1) The Self-Perception Inventory; (2) The Gender-Role Assignment Scale; (3)…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 12 titles deal with the following topics: (1) the relational nature of humor, (2) pragmatism and transaction, (3) within-channel redundancy versus between-channel redundancy in instructional material and its association with…