This booklet describes the characteristics of 16 Chicago-area schools designated as winners in a 1982-83 contest to develop student character and academic learning. Out of the 80 schools competing, the 25 finalists were reviewed for evidence of school effectiveness and outcomes. Schools were asked to assess students' prosocial activities and the…

The soundness of the home-school relationship depends on mutual trust and understanding. This relationship is now at risk because schools have not adjusted to single-parent and step-families. Concern about the home-school relationship has increased over the last decade. However, accompanying the recent rise in non-nuclear families is a gap in…

Intended for use by teachers, school administrators, curriculum designers, and others as they begin to organize and define oral communication instruction within their schools, this guide provides a framework from which to develop instructional programs that will produce effective speakers and listeners. The first section of the guide reviews the…

A study (telephone survey), assessing community support for school family life education programs, had two purposes: (1) to determine acceptability of school sex education programs to residents of northwest Arkansas; and (2) to identify factors related to an individual's acceptance or nonacceptance of such programs. Telephone interviews with 119…

Drawn from the reports of separate research efforts conducted at the National Center for Research in Vocational Education, the four chapters in this volume examine from a variety of perspectives what vocational education should accomplish and is accomplishing. An executive summary begins the volume. In the first chapter, Rupert Evans examines the…

Society is currently in the process of shifting its central focus from the production and distribution of material goods to the production and distribution of information. Indeed, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reveal that the majority of people are now involved in occupations that center around information rather than around industry.…

Despite the proliferation in the last decade of school-college collaboratives designed to help disadvantaged students, a number of unsolved problems about their operation have limited their effectiveness. Schools and colleges collaborate to solve mutual problems in the areas of student development, school improvement, and college improvement. Some…

The first phase of a study of the effectiveness of mainstreaming of children with disabilities in the schools of New South Wales, Australia, is reported. This portion of the study involved intensive observations of small numbers of children (N=43) in all disability groups (mental, physical, sensory, emotional/behavioral, and language disabilities)…

This pamphlet reviews five recent research studies that focus on various key aspects of school climate, a popular metaphor that is difficult to define, measure, or manipulate. "The Search for School Climate: A Review of the Research," by Carolyn Anderson, surveys the full scope of school climate literature, concluding with a summary of…

Progress in developmental/social psychology has occurred in three major areas: (1) knowledge of cognitive development, (2) knowledge involving the various concepts related to the self, and (3) knowledge of how to take explicit account of social context. These areas can be integrated by taking a "life course approach," which emphasizes the…

Several ways in which the culture of the home in a traditional society differs from the culture of the school, as well as obstacles to efforts to coordinate school and home, are identified prior to a discussion of the educational function of the home and functions of the school. It is pointed out that, whereas in traditional societies education…

The book presents guidelines for adaptive transportation measures for handicapped students. Part 1 considers the transportation cycle as a means to evaluate individual student competencies at all logical points during the transportation experience. The transportation cycle is reviewed from deciding to transport the student to gaining access to…

Two brief papers, outlines, worksheets, and surveys for creating a democratic school environment and furthering citizenship education in grades K-12 are presented. The first paper emphasizes the need for and the role of citizenship education in the school. The second paper discusses the influence of the formal, hidden, and societal curricula on…

Formal education has traditionally played the conservative role of transmitting values, culture, skills, and knowledge from one generation to the next. Its role has become dysfunctional in societies such as those in Asia and the Pacific that are characterized by rapid change. In societies such as these, the need now is for education for…

While preparing for reauthorization of the Vocational Education Act, the United States Department of Education is looking at the inadequacies of the present law: overemphasis on process and accountability resulting in its being administratively burdensome, inadequate provision for basic skill development, and no provision for improving and…