This report describes efforts of a technical assistance team under the Documentation and Technical Assistance Project of the Center for New Schools (Chicago, Illinois) to link research and practice for school improvement in Chicago Public School District 21. Section I discusses some characteristics and educational needs of urban areas, generally,…

Peer oral protocols and group oral protocols were assessed for their use in improving certain analytic skills of undergraduate college students at a liberal arts college in Alabama. In association with the study, the theoretical and experimental literature on the use of peer and group educational interventions is outlined briefly. Subjects were…

Based on college writing center models, a number of high schools are deciding to establish writing centers, some of them in anticipation of competency tests in composition. Staffing can be the single most significant and expensive factor for secondary schools wanting to provide writing centers. Among the options for dealing with the staffing…

A core group of pre-kindergarten through fourth-grade teachers and staff at a private day school were given in-service training to meet the special education needs of students. Training aimed to prepare personnel to identify students with mild handicaps, refer more severely handicapped students for diagnosis, and teach students with special…

A program growing from the need for foreign college students to have more contact with native English-speakers matches a university extension program's students of English as a second language (ESL) with American students studying foreign languages at the university level. The ESL students are given the native students' telephone numbers and…

This guide for elementary teachers who are not trained in techniques of English as a second language (ESL) but who have limited English-speaking students in their classes offers specific classroom techniques for helping those students. The first section presents a brief summary of research in first and second language acquisition. The second and…

Whole-class peer tutoring programs have been found by some to be an effective way of providing students with a one-to-one instructional setting. This document reports on a study in which a peer tutoring program on mathematics fact acquisition was assessed using a second grade classroom consisting of 21 learners who possessed below average…

Focusing on English as a second language (ESL) students' cognitive difficulties in content courses, a study evaluated the Retention Exemplary Model Project for 1986-87 of Hostos Community College of the City University of New York. The project's goal was to help advanced and post-ESL students acquire the language and cognitive skills required to…

Beginning in the 1979-80 school year, a long-term staff development project was organized and implemented at Beaverton High School (Oregon). Project goals were to help teachers increase their sense of efficacy by: (1) acquiring and applying skills that would increase their competence in the planning and delivery of instruction; (2) increasing…

A brief description is provided of a successful peer tutoring model implemented by Portsmouth High School (New Hampshire) in which student tutors volunteer to work under the direct supervision of the special educator on reading, math, science, and pre-vocational skills. Peer tutor responsibilities on assisting students in reading are presented,…

This guide focuses on the application of peer tutoring as a strategy for remediation of basic skills in secondary vocational settings. Additional benefits of using a joint vocational-academic approach are highlighted. The guide is part of BASICS, a package of integrated materials developed to assist teachers, administrators, and counselors in…

A program based on the personalized system of instruction (PSI) was written and used in a developmental reading-study skills course for college freshmen. The following principles characterize the PSI: emphasis on the use of written materials--textbook references, questions, and teacher-developed worksheets; the required passing of a mastery test…

This report describes a project developed by New York City Technical College which provides continuing education to the homebound older adults through linkages with colleges and social agencies and a peer teaching approach. Section I provides background information; outlines project objectives, which include the training of professional teachers…

This report describes the activities of the Documentation and Technical Assistance in Urban Schools Project (DTA) in the Chicago Public Schools. The past and present work of the DTA is outlined and its efforts to improve the educational experiences of black youth are discussed. The report focuses on the DTA's efforts to implement peer tutoring…

Experimental and supplementary observational studies of how children help one another learn are reported. In the experiment, developmental patterns in children's discourse in two common peer-learning situations were investigated. Sixty-four pairs of children, drawn equally from kindergarten and second grade, participated in the study. Dyads,…