Buildings and the larger environment can both make a positive contribution to the well-being, education, and development of mentally handicapped children. Because of the wide variety of handicaps experienced by children and different community opinions and practices, standard solutions are not recommended. Rather, an examination is made of the…

Recounts observations of a child's interactions with Beverly Cleary's Ramona books, noting that she exhibited "passionate attention" toward the characters by becoming involved with them and discussing them often. Shows that the child's comments grew from observations to criticism over time, and her passionate attention to Ramona expanded…

Discusses the need for minority teachers to be role models and counselors if Black and other minority students are to achieve academically. Proposes the following solutions: (1) hire and promote more minority teachers on the basis of potential rather than experience; and (2) improve the image and effectiveness of teachers, regardless of…

Presents an overview of the competing visions of the literature curriculum currently being advanced. Also presents the historical roots of the approaches, as well as the assumptions about learning and adolescents that each approach makes. (NKA)

Describes one statewide process of basal series selection and outlines the concerns of eight groups involved in the process. (FL)

Contains seven papers divided into three sections addressing: (1) the application of marketing principles to child care organizations and ways of remedying the negative public image of child care; (2) training child care professionals to develop marketing skills; and (3) successful uses of five basic marketing skills illustrated through four case…

The National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (NCSALL) Adult Reading Components Study (ARCS) was the first large-scale attempt to describe the reading of students enrolled in adult basic education (ABE) and English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) using a battery of individually administered reading and language tests.…

The Education Code and Title 5 Regulations clearly lay out the requirements for faculty members hired to teach courses and perform other services in the California Community Colleges. Since passage of the Community College Reform Act (AB 1725) in 1988, faculty have had the primary role in determining who is hired to their ranks and specifically…

The high school diploma is no longer the credential for a lifetime and it has not been for decades. Since the 1970s, there has been a growing consensus that training or education beyond high school is necessary to qualify for "family wage" jobs, jobs that pay enough for a family to live reasonably comfortably. Despite this widespread…

While the shortage of qualified administrators is not as serious as the shortage of qualified teachers, some schools continue to fail to attract qualified leaders. Referred to as "hard-to-staff" schools, they are often characterized by high-poverty students, low test scores, high staff turnover, and under qualified teachers. This ERIC…

If literacy is defined as the ability to read and write, in the context of Hong Kong, literacy is more commonly known as language proficiency. The introduction of the Hong Kong Extensive Reading Scheme in English (HKERS) in 1991 aimed to motivate the students to read and thus enhance their English proficiency. Yet, as of 2001, after a decade since…

This brief uses a regional approach to address issues related to teacher quality and supply. It discusses some of the factors and prospects that might inform the regional perspective, focusing on raising the ceiling by working as a region on teacher quality, viewing teacher quality as the key to reaching goals for student achievement, and…

This Working Paper contains three sections: the background to existing User Choice resourcing principles and their interrelationships as of March 2004; analysis of the existing arrangements, including their consistency with each other and with the User Choice principles agreed by Ministers; and concluding comments. The author found a considerable…

This publication addresses videoconferencing (VC) in technical and further education in Britain. It discusses choosing a system, issues in getting a system up and running, and getting the best out of the system. Chapter 1 defines what VC is, lists ways to use it, describes three basic types of VC (desktop units, roll-abouts, studio/room-sized…

A thematic unit on folk literature designed for middle school English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) instruction, for students with beginner to intermediate level skills, is presented. The intention in introducing literature at these levels is to provide positive experiences with literature in the target language, and to introduce the target culture.…