The expansion of field-based preparation for teachers in recent years has been driven by several factors. The satisfaction of university students and instructors participating in site-based instruction and the encouragement of local schools seeking reform themselves have refueled this expansion. In a site-based course, preservice teachers provide…

By intertwining narratives, journals, interviews, and traditional analysis and argument, this book offers an ethnographic account of a diverse group of community college faculty working together to revise their writing center's tutor protocols and expectations for student writing. In doing so, it takes postsecondary writing teachers to the place…

Vocational Literacy is a new academic field which has arisen in response to criticism from industry that vocational graduates are not sufficiently literate to perform on the job. South Seattle Community College (SSCC) in Washington has investigated the feasibility of coordinating courses in computer literacy with English and technical courses to…

This publication investigates what happened when a Chicago public school first-grade teacher radically changed her teaching practice and embraced a holistic literary approach. The practice of shifting patterns of control in the classroom and the construction of knowledge in a setting where most children are bilingual is explored. The nine chapters…

The Employability Skills Center (ESC) of the Division of Adult and Continuing Education (DACE) of the Sweetwater Union High School District (California) was created out of a need to help adult students develop the basic skills that are required for success in their chosen vocational programs but not taught in regular adult basic education classes.…

The preschool teacher is in the unique position of being able to identify children who have developed language and speech problems during their early years. This paper is a detailed resource for preschool teachers on hearing and speech problems. Its purpose is two-fold: to emphasize the important role the preschool teacher plays in the lives of…

Undergraduate students at Northern Arizona University interviewed and surveyed 20 staff members at Kayenta Unified School District (KUSD) on the Navajo Reservation and 14 parents of exceptional Navajo children enrolled in KUSD. Both groups were asked to identify challenges affecting the working relationship between parents and school on a rural…

This paper describes the use of electronic dialogue journals in a college course designed to teach 14 students a student-centered, whole-language reading methodology for use with children with hearing impairments. Students used electronic mail to discuss issues with the course instructor at the same time they were writing interactive journals with…

This study, one of several examining a decline in the predictive validity of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and high school grades between 1975 and 1988, asks whether the criterion, freshman grade point average (FGPA), has changed. College Board tests usually thought of as predictors were used as proxies for the concurrent academic…

A study examined the effects of specific literacy-related activities in preschool on subsequent language and literacy-related knowledge. All of the subjects were eligible for Head Start or comparable programs, with half of the classrooms being Head Start classrooms. When the subjects were 3 years old, a total of 63 children were visited in 48…

Findings of a task force on introduction of a school governance system for Manitoba's (Canada) francophone minority population are reported. The document outlines the background--i.e., the Canadian context--of this report, principles and procedures, the resulting recommended structure for governance, and suggestions for addressing such issues as…

Learning can occur in a natural way when parents serve as models to their child, demonstrating how to learn, facilitating the learning process, and guiding the learner. With a teacher's guidance, parents can improve their understanding of their child's learning. Teachers can encourage parents to share wordless picture books, books with predictable…

These 28 recommendations are intended to enhance government's ability to play a positive and supportive role in the development of a range of pathways for the learner that can result in literacy for all Manitobans. A foreword provides background on the Task Force on Literacy and presents its definition of literacy and illiteracy, findings…

Six communication instructors redesigned the curriculum of two courses to make integration part of teacher training both in course content and in the way trainees were taught and prepared. Having conducted a literature search, the six teachers developed a language arts interdisciplinary team to plan, pilot, and implement a new integrated approach.…

Problems involved in reducing the achievement gap among ethnic groups in the Seattle (Washington) public schools were studied. An 11-member team selected 25 elementary schools and 216 classrooms for the study, which included classroom observations, teacher questionnaires, and measurement of ethnic achievement gap reduction through California…