This report describes a project that sought to ascertain the educational expectations and actual levels of participation by Black, low to low-middle income parents of 36 regular and special education students entering three Baltimore (Maryland) public schools. The parents' initial expectations and the development of these expectations over the…

This study examined the efficacy of early intervention with 38 children ages 5 to 10 with Down Syndrome. The study specifically looked at the influence on later school placement of three early intervention treatments during a child's first 5 years: (1) publicly provided programs (22 children); (2) privately provided programs (4 children); and (3)…

Bangladesh is currently suffering from a number of debilitating weaknesses in its education system. Seventy percent of all children are enrolled in primary school, but 75% of these children do not reach grade five. Futhermore, with absentee rates of 50% for both students and teachers, it is estimated that 35% of children who attend school are…

This packet of handouts focuses on the role of the family in easing their child with disabilities from one early childhood educational program to another. Typical items include: reasons for involving families in transition; questions parents ask about "appropriate" placement; planned conversations with parents during the transition process; parent…

This paper examines the relationship between special education fiscal policies and the least restrictive environment (LRE) requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). It focuses on the need to develop federal and state fiscal policies that achieve a balance between the sometimes competing needs of the LRE and the…

This paper utilizes the concepts of power and change as a framework for describing and analyzing efforts made by an individual teacher to change instructional-grouping and teacher-assignment practices in one Georgia school system. Data were collected through interviews with the individual teacher, administrators, educators, and federal and state…

This report discusses issues regarding the out-of-home placement of children with developmental disabilities and the need for permanency planning for these children. The document reports on a project which sought to: (1) discern practices of Colorado's Department of Social Services and Division for Developmental Disabilities which affect the…

At the request of the Department of Mathematics at the University of Texas Austin (UT Austin), the Measurement and Evaluation Center conducted a validity study to assist in revising the department's placement policy for Mathematics 403K (M 403K). The existing decision score on the College Board Achievement Test in Mathematics Level 1 (460) was…

A longitudinal study followed up participants of three Florida Adult Migrant Projects in order to examine project success in converting unemployable migrant and seasonal farmworker clients of Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA), Title IV-A, Section 402, into independent wage earners and to determine the extent to which employment was consistent to…

This report describes a congressional hearing on implementation of the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills (JOBS) Training Program enacted by the Family Support Act of 1988. Focus is on the progress being made. Testimony includes statements and prepared statements from U.S. senators, and individuals representing the Administration for Children and…

In 1991, a study was conducted at Golden West College (California) to determine whether there was a significant relationship between eligibility for English 100, a university-transferable writing course, and success in Introductory Psychology. The sample consisted of students appearing on first-day rosters of Introductory Psychology classes in the…

At Golden College (California), student writing samples are holistically scored by pairs of judges on a six-point scale. Judges are allowed to use plus and minus figures, thus converting the integer scale to a decimal scale of evaluation. In 1991, 499 writing samples written as part of the placement testing process for students in the Coast…

The Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980 (PL 96-272) provided major federal initiatives to reform the state child welfare system. The goals of the act were to keep families together by providing them with services and to find permanent adoptive homes for children who could not be reunited with their parents. This report examines the…

The purpose of this research was to compare two different forms of a placement test in French as a second language at the post-secondary level, a conventional test and a computerized test. First, expectations regarding a placement test as a measure of general proficiency are discussed and principles of adaptive testing that have been used to…

Students will be better equipped for college writing if they know how and by what standards their writing will be judged during their undergraduate years. At the college level, measures of writing skills serve the important functions of admission, placement, course equivalency, junior status, exit from courses, or barriers to graduation. Placement…