This article describes the challenges and strengths of asthma management in 14 low-income, predominantly African American urban elementary schools serving more than 5,000 students. Asthma prevalence was 24.5%. Teachers, school principals, parents, and children described how asthma was managed at school. Data from classmates of students with asthma…

Parent advocates play a key role in driving forward the debate and critical analysis of what constitutes professional knowledge in special education. The results of the study indicate that a burgeoning confidence and status might be attached to parental knowledge and expertise that could widen the traditional boundaries confined by the…

This article introduces a qualitative study entitled "The moral and ethical bases of teachers' interactions with students". The main focus of the study is on the teacher's role as moral agent and the orientations within the classroom to issues of right and wrong as identified by teachers and the researchers. The primary intent is to…

Though AIDS case rates among Asian Pacific Islander Americans (APIs) in the United States remain relatively low, the number has been steadily increasing. Scholars, policy makers, and service providers still know little about how confident APIs are in carrying out different HIV risk reduction strategies. This article addresses this gap by…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review current programmes and major issues surrounding preventive interventions for body image and obesity in schools. Design/methodology/approach: A literature review was carried out by analysing papers cited in major literature databases from the last 50 years. This review describes and summarises…

For the past five years, Vermont has been developing an innovative statewide assessment system in which portfolios of student work in mathematics and writing are a key element. The use of mathematics portfolios, particularly in elementary school, is a novel aspect of the assessment system. This study examines the elementary school mathematics…

This briefing paper presents a synthesis of data on early eligibility determination which provides middle- and secondary-school students and their parents with individualized information about their eligibility for financial aid to pay for higher education. This information is intended to be provided at a time when decisions must be made about…

This publication, the result of a series of conferences held between April and October 1989, is a guide to assessing the competence of prospective art teachers in the California public schools. The guide was developed as part of a state-wide response to legislated entry and exit standards for teachers in elementary and secondary schools. An…

This study was conducted to examine teachers' knowledge of teaching mathematics and writing to diverse learners, and knowledge changes that occur over time, particularly during and after formal teacher education programs. Commonplaces of teaching were articulated as subject matter, learners, learning, and context. Three measurement instruments…

Analyses of the cognitive activity displayed by students on existing innovative assessments in science were conducted. The project has worked with pilot alternative assessment programs in Connecticut and California to document the match or mismatch between the skills and processes that the assessment is designed to tap and those actually elicited.…

The Massachusetts Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) was established in 1985 to compare academic achievement among schools and districts and to give curriculum and instructional guidance. Biennially, it tests all students in grades 4, 8, and 12 in reading, mathematics, science, and social studies. Using a matrix sampling design, each student…

This proposal describes the organization and implementation of a "World Steel Drum Ensemble" as a strategy to solve the problems of low minority academic achievement, high minority discipline incidents, and minority isolationism. The drum ensemble studied and performed music from Caribbean, Hispanic, and African heritages in a middle…

The second phase of a 3-year project examining the effect of a process approach to writing instruction on students' expository reading and writing skills, a study determined the impact of three writing programs that emphasized different aspects of a process-oriented writing environment. Data were gathered from 159 fifth and sixth grade students…

The College Entrance Examination Board Advisory Panel on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) Score Decline considered various changes in American society as a possible cause of the downward trend in SAT scores that has occurred each year since 1963. For a span of 42 years (1933-75), a fold-out chart displays major events and influences on events,…

Summary findings gathered by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in the 1973-74 national assessment of career and occupational development (COD) are reported. (NAEP is an information-gathering project that surveys the educational attainment of 9-year-olds, 13-year-olds, 17-year-olds, and adults (ages 26-35) in ten learning…