The government of Ontario (Canada) announced, in December 1979, its position on three major issues of school governance currently in dispute in the Ottawa and Carleton school systems. The first announcement (overriding recommendations made in 1974 by the Mayo Commission and again in March 1979 in the government's "Education Green Paper")…

In 1980, the International Environmental Education Program of UNESCO published Strategies for Developing an Environmental Education Curriculum, to be used as a working document for a series of regional workshops. This publication is a revision of the 1980 document and is intended to provide an update for curriculum developers in environmental…

The Social Issues course is designed to help students make rational and constructive decisions regarding various social and environmental problems. It is intended to be used with 10, 11, or 12th grade students. This course contains units on decision-making, urban planning, food and nutrition, environmental pollution, nuclear energy, and resource…

The Science in Action series is designed to teach practical science concepts to special-needs students. It is intended to develop students' problem-solving skills by teaching them to observe, record, analyze, conclude, and predict. This document contains a student workbook which deals with basic principles of physical science. Six separate units…

This 4-part study reaffirms the concepts of a previous study entitled "Situation and Prospects of Youth in Latin America" and approved in 1983, and on the basis of new knowledge explores more deeply national situations and their diversity. It offers new conceptual and theoretical contributions on the condition of youth in Latin America…

Ways to prepare and present lectures that hold college students' attention and involve them in the teaching-learning process are discussed. Attention is focused on linguistic, rhetorical, and psychological aspects of classroom communication; common communication problems in the classroom; and how to overcome and avoid communication problems.…

Criticism of standardized tests is extensive, and a number of claims of test misuse have been made. Test misuse is discussed in six common circumstances. (1) Test users accept the title of a test as an accurate and complete description of the variable being measured, not having full knowledge of the test, its items, and the test manual. A…

This paper examines remedial programs in colleges and discusses the relationship of those programs to diagnostic testing. The Basic Skills Placement Test (BSPT) is required of all College freshman in New Jersey public colleges. Mercer County Community College, used as an example throughout this paper, uses the BSPT as a basis for placing students…

The incidence of pregnancy among young teenagers has increased dramatically in the past several decades. Young single mothers are much more likely than others to leave school before graduation and to be unemployed and poor. This study was conducted to identify differences in completion, school attendance rates, and grades for secondary and adult…

A review of more than 500 empirical studies conducted since 1970 on the achievement of Mexican Americans identified prior claims supported and/or refuted by data, isolated promising hypotheses for further investigation or educational implementation, and made recommendations for improvement of schooling, school-home relations, and teacher…

In this paper, two major schools of thought regarding disaster and disaster assistance are identified and examined in order to bring to light their underlying assumptions about assistance and development in the Third World. The first section discusses the context of the problem, citing figures and presenting charts to illustrate the scope and…

This report examines current state practices and procedures for assessing vocational education programs in light of the evaluation requirements of the 1976 Vocational Education Act Amendments. The report is based on information obtained through personal and telephone interviews with vocational education administrative personnel in the states,…

This paper deals with the evaluation of an out-of-school tutorial program, CROSSROADS, which was funded under the U.S. Department of Education's Basic Skills Improvement Program. Like many projects funded under the Basic Skills program, CROSSROADS was terminated after two years even though it had been funded with the expectation of four years for…

The educational change strategy termed "reaching success through involvement" (RSI) has yielded promising results in creating school effectiveness. This paper analyzes the theoretical bases and practical applications of RSI strategy among 14 schools over an 8-year period. RSI theory assumes that educational organizations are dynamic social systems…

Implemented in January 1984, the two-part New Jersey local assistance plan calls for state intervention and possible takeover in districts that are unable, after going through the Level I and Level II monitoring and correction processes, to meet state certification standards. The first phase of the intervention plan, a Level III monitoring…