Efforts to solve intergenerational literacy must focus on the family as a unit. However, schools traditionally have a poor track record in dealing with minority/disadvantaged students and involving their parents. Studies have demonstrated the importance of family/community influence on children as well as the cultural and linguistic insensitivity…

This is the second report on the evaluation of Project Giant Step, a program aiming to establish universal, comprehensive services to all 4-year-olds in New York, starting with low-income children in New York City who are not served by existing programs. The program combines an appropriate developmental and educational experience for children with…

A comparison of adolescents views about school, based on data gathered 26 years apart, shows remarkable similarities. Students interviewed in 1963 were from Detroit schools while 1989 interviews were conducted in small-town schools of Texas, Missouri, and Minnesota. viewed poor teachers as lacking respect for students, unwilling to try to…

This report summarizes findings of the Los Angeles Unified School District's third annual Basic Activities Survey (BAS), held in spring 1985. The BAS measures opinions of certificated staff, classified staff, and parents concerning the district's performance in the areas of curriculum, teaching methods, and instructional materials. The sample…

The activities of the third year of the Bilingual Education for Student Achievement (BESA) Project, conducted by the San Mateo County (California) Office of Education is described. The first section provides a brief description of the program, of which the major purpose was to provide English language instruction for limited-English-proficient…

This second manual of the Head Start training manual set includes workshop modules which focus on child development, social services and parent involvement. The section on child development covers six mini-workshops on the topics of roles and responses of the teacher learning environments, daily planning, classroom management, team teaching, and…

Americans want increased federal involvement in their local schools, but they are hesitant about federal control of the classroom. A special CBS News poll, conducted among a nationwide random sample of 1,107 adults (347 of which currently have children in school) by telephone between May 30 and June 2, 1990, indicated a significant division on…

College students' level of interest in volunteering for eight campus organizations was compared with their foremost educational objective (career orientation versus personal development orientation). A random sample of 858 entering students at a large eastern public university was administered the University New Student Census, which included a…

During the last five years, the Prince George's County (Maryland) public school system has brought about dramatic improvements in the academic achievement of at-risk students, offering strong evidence that public education can succeed for all children. This report describes how Prince George's County accomplished this turnaround through a process…

These two manuals, one designed for students and the other for instructors, offer information on the development of reading, listening, and study strategies. The student manual begins with information on the instructional approach that will be used and the characteristics of active readers, writers, planners, listeners, and students. The…

A practicum was designed to change the traditional methods of writing instruction which had not been effective in meeting the developmental needs of first-grade children. Twenty-two teachers responded to two surveys to provide problem documentation data. Four goals and instructional plans were selected to address the problem. The first goal, of…

This report, the first of two volumes, identifies effective practices used in 16 successful migrant education programs. On the basis of student outcome data, the projects were selected from 153 programs nominated by state directors of migrant education. Observation of project services; review of project records; and interviews with project staff,…

The Indicators of Quality Schools is a series of checklists of schoolwide practices or conditions found in schools known to have an effective instructional program. The instrument is designed to help schools identify areas of strength and areas where improvement is needed. The instrument consists of three parts: (1) the environment for learning,…

This book makes the case for providing study skills instruction at the elementary and secondary school levels and identifies important study skills and how to teach them. Chapters include: (1) "The Case for Study Skills Instruction"; (2) "Theory and Research"; (3) "Planning for Study Skills Instruction"; (4)…

This digest is adapted from Linda Cohen's publication, "Meeting the Needs of Gifted and Talented Minority Language Students." It explores the controversy surrounding the underrepresentation of minority language students in gifted and talented programs and makes recommendations for more suitable assessment techniques and program models.…