The word "miftan" means "threshold" in Hebrew. The Miftan as an educational framework was conceived in Israel as a response to the needs of marginal male youth who are about to drop out or who have dropped out of the regular school system. Currently 42 Miftanim are operating in that country. This report presents ethnographic…

Three off campus private alternative schools have been supported, in part, by the Portland, Oregon, Public Schools. The students, mostly high school age, are largely dropouts or on the verge of dropping out of school. Many were referred because of behavior, attendance, or other discipline problems. At least half of the students in each school have…

Title I reading and math outcomes for the school years 1980-81 and 1981-82 in the District of Columbia's public schools (grades 1, 2, 3 and 7) are the subject of this report. In both school years, achievement gains in reading exceeded program objectives for grades 3 and 7 but not for grade 2 (grade 1 scores were not used due to a technical…

Providing an historical and current account of Israel's early childhood care and educational system, this report depicts a state-supported system that has emphasized, through both home and classroom techniques, early intervention for the Jewish disadvantaged and handicapped child and family. Focusing on the goals, methods, and realities of child…

Disadvantaged, Upward Bound students (n=94) were administered a test battery of the Otis Quick-Scoring Mental Ability Test, Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test, Guilford's tests of Expressional Fluency, Alternate Uses, and Consequences; and the Figural Form of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking. Results are discussed in relation to previous…

A successful educational program for Appalachian youth must begin with the skills and knowledge peculiar to the students' culture. (JH)

Suggests that the purposes of self-centered parochial (including educational) institutions be examined and that they be considered as structures designed to help human beings escape the shackles of their own constricted egos. [Available from JCSI, 119 West 24th Street, New York, New York 10011]. (Author/AM)

Criticizes the 'Look and Say' method of teaching reading, asserting that it assumes that most children will learn to read by themselves, that it leaves out those children who need to be taught to read, that it can actually teach a child not to concentrate, that it teaches memory, and that it helps the child to accept his disability. (Author/JM)

The major focus of this study, it is stated, was on two comparisons of performance of four pre-school groups consisting of retarded, brain-injured, normal, and disadvantaged subjects; examining both the effects of two versus three dimensional formats on and the correlation between identification and Concept-Matching responses. [Available from R &…

Describes the experiences provided for disadvantaged children aged 4-14 years through an enrichment program, begun in 1973, which aims to foster feelings of closeness and love in a rural setting. Groups of 20 children are bused to a farm each day for two one-week periods during the summer. (ED)

Employment barriers posed by job application blanks for disadvantaged (minority group, undereducated, or nonreading) applicants are discussed, and recommendations are made for changing both the intent and the content of application forms in order to make them less discriminatory. (LH)

Concludes that a substantial number of children in inner-city early grades do not comprehend the basic nature of the writing system, even at the end of one year of reading instruction with a phonics-oriented method. (RB)

Hearing loss through otitis media is one of the most prevalent health problems of the American Indian. (Author)