This digest examines the unique nature of public charter schools, explains their obligations to students with disabilities, and presents the results of two federally funded studies of special education in charter schools. It finds wide variations among the 37 states which permit charter schools. The digest stresses the importance of the legal…

The Pathways to Teaching Program is answering Georgia's call for minority teachers by offering noncertified school district employees with exemplary work records, above average college grades, and sincere commitment to teaching, tuition and other support to take college courses and become certified as teachers. In return, scholars contract to…

The essays in this book, by contributors from around the world, clarify predominant theoretical issues that pertain to virtual instruction, and offer practical suggestions for implementing these programs in any setting. Chapters include: "Mapping Space and Time: Virtual Instruction as Global Ritual" (Joyce W. Nutta and Carine M. Feyten);…

The instructional design that is imperative towards the design and development of a Web-based course environment is of primary consideration when a graduate-level course is the focus of attention. Further, a multimedia course that incorporates the theoretical as well as hands-on elements that must be consistently focused upon and updated is of…

This study explores the question of access in Arizona's postsecondary electronic education environment by looking at an urban community college with a highly diverse student population. Phoenix College (PC) is a community college in the Maricopa Community College District in Phoenix, Arizona. A number of neighborhoods near the campus showed a…

Beginning with a brief history of homeschooling in America, this paper discusses literature describing today's population of homeschoolers. Although older, the binary typology offered by Van Galen (1987, 1991) to categorize the motivations of homeschoolers is still utilized in much of the homeschooling literature. Van Galen breaks homeschoolers…

School choice, as one avenue toward educational reform, must be placed in context, according to this brief policy analysis. Prepared mainly for policymakers in California and stressing implications for public education in California, the report briefly discusses five samples of school choice: (1) magnet schools; (2) charter schools; (3) open…

During 1999, the school choice movement succeeded in winning the enactment of an education tax credit program in Illinois and two new charter school laws, in addition to the sweeping (although subsequently overturned) school choice plan in Florida. Pennsylvania, New Mexico, and Texas also attempted to enact school choice legislation. In addition,…

This study measured and compared the pre- and post-course differences in college students' attitudes toward and achievement in an asynchronous, Web-based, health profession course. The distance course included 14 Web-based learning modules that students could complete at their own pace prior to finishing the end of the term. The course also…

Several years ago, the faculty at the University of Connecticut's School of Education embarked on an integrated Bachelor's/Master's elementary teacher preparation program. The new program originated in the educational reform literature of the late 1980s. Significant features included a commitment to: a fifth Master's year; a small number of school…

This paper presents information for educators on delivering an Internet-based course. The paper is divided into three parts. Part 1, "Teaching on the Web, What Is It?," lists advantages and disadvantages of face-to-face classroom instruction, traditional distance education, and Internet-based education which combines features from both…

This study examined the effectiveness of an alternative certification program for secondary teachers that emphasized the need for certified teachers in rural districts. The program utilized distance learning and integrated technology. Thirty uncertified secondary teachers who taught the previous year in Louisiana public schools completed 27 hours…

This booklet is the fourth in a series designed to assist parents who are home-schooling their adolescent children and focuses on teaching a foreign language, history, science, and physical education. The articles in this booklet are: (1) "Habla Espanol? Tackling Foreign Language," examining effective and ineffective foreign language instruction…

The rapid growth in the number of students taking classes via correspondence, video or television delivery in Washington state technical and community colleges during the last decade was largely due to the expansion of telecourse offerings and the recent growth of online (Internet-based) and interactive videoconferencing courses. In fall 1994,…

This paper describes novel approaches for adapting an introductory computing course for online distance learning, including discussions of the underlying pedagogy and objectives as well as the implementation and results of the online course. The first section describes the original course which was adapted to Internet delivery. The next section…