The Newark Public Schools (NPS) has been at the center of reform and improvement efforts in New Jersey for the better part of 12 years. The results of these efforts are both significant and frustrating. The school district has made substantial progress over the last few years; but it also has a long way to go before it attains the level of…

Early in the 20th century, educators began looking for scientific methods for matching texts with readers. Some of the best minds in education dedicated themselves to this task, including Edward L. Thorndike, William S. Gray, Ralph Tyler, Edgar Dale, Irving Lorge, and Jeanne S. Chall. The purpose of this book is to bring students of reading into…

With many of today's high school students having the opportunity to be the first in their families to attend college, parents undoubtedly feel the stress of making sure that their son/daughter is fully prepared to enter this phase of their life. Making the transition from high school to college can be overwhelming for both parents and students.…

Analyses based on fitting item response models to data from the College Board's Advanced Placement exams in Chemistry and United States History indicated that the constructed-response portion of the tests yielded little information over and above that provided by the multiple-choice sections. These tests also allow examinees to select subsets of…

Results of studying inclusion of Illinois students with disabilities in regular education are presented. The moral, educational, and legal bases for inclusion in public school general education were reviewed. Differences regarding planning and decision making for children with disabilities were investigated in three schools that were relatively…

This five part paper reviews problems faced by underprepared students and describes a model developed by faculty at the South Campus of Florida's Palm Beach Community College for dealing with such students. Section I reviews issues related to defining student underpreparedness and developing a model to serve all types of underprepared students,…

Case study as a research methodology was used to provide a dense description and examination of many of the complex factors in the experiences of three selected student teachers and their cooperating teachers. This research effort examined the real or perceived effects of cooperating teachers' supervision on student teachers' attitudes,…

This report to the Florida State Legislature answers questions posed by the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee regarding the gifted and talented program in elementary and secondary schools. Questions address: identification of districts offering the program only for specific grade levels, effects of delaying the identification and placement of…

This article focuses on issues related to outcomes for doctoral degree recipients and the efforts of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) to develop a coherent and consistent approach to employment tracking. Recent (1994-95) UCLA doctoral recipients (n=893) were surveyed concerning their initial employment placements. The article…

Increasingly, community colleges and universities are called upon to provide comparable information on their students despite differences in institutional mission and student attendance patterns. To help colleges and universities respond to this need, the Joint Commission on Accountability Reporting was formed to develop uniform reporting formats.…

As part of an effort to statistically validate the placement tests used in California's San Diego Community College District (SDCCD) a study was undertaken to review the criteria- and content-related validity of the Assessment and Placement Services (APS) reading and writing tests. Evidence of criteria and content validity was gathered from…

This study surveyed general education teachers in four private elementary/secondary schools in New Delhi, India, concerning their attitudes toward mainstreaming students with mild to severe disabilities and factors that teachers considered essential for successful mainstreaming. The 98-item survey elicited 32 responses. Results are discussed in…

One of the most important characteristics of a qualified high school teacher is college training in the subject in which he or she teaches. Data from the 1990-91 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS)--conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics to collect information on teachers' undergraduate and graduate degrees and their school…

This collection of papers describes the interagency collaboration of Georgia agencies that serve students with emotional and behavior disorders (EBD). The first paper, "Overview and State Perspective" (P. Paulette Bragg and Phillip H. Pickens), describes the problems facing Georgia by placing students with EBD in state hospitals, private…

Since the early 1980s, the New York State Board of Regents and the State Education Department have advanced a complex reform agenda centered around the development of curriculum and related standards. These reforms have considerable implications for the allocation and use of human resources within schooling systems. This paper reports on a series…