This working paper is a product of a regional study in industrial South Wales of the determinants of participation and non-participation in post-compulsory education and training, with special reference to processes of change in the patterns of these determinants over time and to variations between geographical areas. This paper describes the…

Daily activities and social contact were studied as influences on the life satisfaction of elderly people. It was considered that all activities might not be equal and that individuals who participate in more active activities and who have more active social contacts would score higher in life satisfaction than those who engage in inactive…

This report details findings from visits to 15 small schools associated with Human Scale Education. These schools are all different, reflecting the priorities of their founders. But there are features common to all of them--parental involvement, democratic processes, environmentally sustainable values, spiritual values, links with the local…

This paper provides a historical overview of international education trends in U.S. colleges, including teacher education programs, comparing current research with data from the 1970s. In 2000, deans and department chairs of the American Association of colleges for Teacher Education's (AACTE's) 735 member institutions were sent a 31-item…

This study investigated the perceptions of selected stakeholders about the impact of returning to a district-wide neighborhood school structure after having been under a federal desegregation mandate (involving busing) since the 1970s. It focuses on data from interviews with African American and white elementary school teachers. The interviews…

Using the mythical creature of the Himalayas, the Yeti, as a symbol for the prejudices and assumptions that people prematurely make about each other, this book discusses bringing up children to accept and cherish diversity and helping them to thrive in an increasingly diverse world. Directed to educators and caregivers of toddlers and…

In this unit, students prepare a report on China, specifically on the relevance of key events in China's recent history (The Communist Revolution, The Great Leap Forward, The Cultural Revolution, Tiananmen Square) to its current economic and political changes. Students assume the role of presidential advisors who are expected to know the present…

This book examines the efforts of Valley Interfaith--a community-based organization in the south Texas borderlands--to improve the living conditions of low-income residents and immigrants and the public schools their children attend. Valley Interfaith is unusual in that it crosses the boundary separating the worlds of community organizing and…

This manual, designed to help public libraries in Arizona to plan their summer reading programs for children, celebrates the 25th anniversary of the Arizona Reading Program. The material in the manual is prepared for libraries to adapt for their own uses. Chapters of the manual include: (1) Introductory Materials; (2) Goals, Objectives and…

Project Leadership Excellence Achievement and Performance (LEAP) was designed to respond to the needs of gifted students enrolled in secondary schools in rural areas. This paper describes Project LEAP's implementation in four rural Oklahoma high schools with high American Indian enrollments and high percentages of low-income families and limited…

The Partnership for Family Involvement in Education is a grassroots initiative to increase opportunities for families to be more involved with their children's learning at school and at home, to strengthen schools, and to improve student achievement levels. This CD-ROM from the Partnership contains materials and resources on family involvement in…

This guide provides Maryland teachers with information regarding how to evaluate and improve service-learning. Seven suggested practices for school-based service learning were derived from interviews with 80 Maryland teachers actively engaging their students in service learning. These seven best practices, which might provide a framework for…

The school reform movement has been a major societal and political agenda item for nearly two decades. As a result of the pressure stemming from the movement to make schools more effective, many changes have occurred. The most obvious of these changes is an increased emphasis on assessment. Furthermore, school counselors, like teachers and…

Seventh grade students in three schools in different communities in the Midwest were described by parents and teachers as not exhibiting acceptable responsibility for their own learning and not showing respect or ownership for their learning environments. This paper describes a program designed for improving these students' responsibility for…

Presented in a question-and-answer format, this guide provides information to assist teachers of students with disabilities in writing quality Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). Following an introduction explaining the purposes of the IEP, the guide is organized around seven important steps in creating IEPs: (1) describe the student; (2)…