Designed to help teachers, grade six through high school, overcome misgivings about computers for writing and make the most of the new technology, this book offers answers to an urgent question in language arts: how can computers be woven into the human fabric of a writing workshop? The book is based on a five-year study of computers for writing…

Tennessee's Student/Teacher Achievement Ratio project (Project STAR) was designed to study the effects of class size on pupils in primary (K-3) grades. Responses of Project STAR teachers (N=1,003) to the annual Teacher Exit Interview are summarily reported for 1986 through 1989. Generally, the perceptions of teachers in small classes, in regular…

This paper discusses ways that institutions can change the higher education system and environment to accommodate more minority students. The first section, "Institutional Climate and Minority Achievement," presents an overview of the problems facing colleges and universities with respect to recruiting and retaining minority students. In the…

This study examined how personnel issues raised by P.L. 99-457, Education of the Handicapped Amendments (1986) were being met in North Carolina in 1985 and 1988. Data were gathered from the statewide network of home-based intervention services (Early Childhood Service), providing information about 139 staff and consultants in 1985 and 135 in 1988.…

Educational change depends on the development of total school system readiness. An analysis of the school evaluation process is the purpose of this report. Essential steps to determine school readiness for restructuring include the assessment, profiling, and integration of interrelated system components, which include focus and support factors.…

This paper discusses home visiting programs for low income parents and infants and describes five such programs known collectively as the Child Survival/Fair Start (CS/FS) projects, funded by the Ford Foundation. It describes a conceptual model which links risk factors and intervention activities to effects on mothers and children and explains how…

This learning module, which is part of a three-block series intended to help human service workers develop the skills necessary to solve the problems encountered in their daily contact with elderly clients of different cultural backgrounds, deals with communication and adjustment in the context of death and dying and their role in Ukrainian…

The challenges and rewards of dealing with the many types of students that can be found in today's English classrooms--gifted, handicapped, learning disabled, second language learners--are addressed in this focused journal issue. The titles of the articles and their authors are as follows: (1) "Help Me Help You" (L. Quitman Troika); (2) "Students…

The bibliography is intended to provide practitioners in early intervention programs with information about self-report (by parents) measures as they relate to evaluating family outcomes. Twenty-five measures are described in terms of content, format, reliability, and validity. Sources for obtaining the measures are also identified. Instruments…

Effects of family-oriented early intervention on the home environment were explored in a 6-month study of 23 handicapped children (ages birth to 5) and their families, who participated as members of an experimental or control group. The Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) Inventory was administered to evaluate differences in…

Extended quotations from informal interviews with eight families focus on the experiences of parents in adjusting to life with a handicapped child. In the first part of this paper, seven interview questions probe the following issues: positive and negative experiences with other people's reactions; most and least helpful actions by others; effects…

A second language teaching technique using relaxation, imagination, and music to accelerate the learning process is imagination, and music to accelerate the learning process is discussed. Part 1 describes the classroom setting and the stages and processes of the technique. Part 2 outlines the theory and sources of the method in the literature of…

This report summarizes the final evaluation of the Parental Empowerment Program: an experimental program building on family strengths and local resources which was offered for an average of 24 months to 160 families in 10 Syracuse (New York) neighborhoods. Chapter 1 provides a conceptual overview, a program description, and a methodological…

Developed by early childhood educators at the classroom, system, state, and university levels and tested in six school systems, this handbook has been prepared to help kindergarten teachers in Georgia plan, implement, and evaluate their own programs. In addition to introductory material stating the philosophy of the program, principles of child…

The concept of social representations, which was developed by Moscovici in 1984, suggests new ways of understanding the social processes that underlie communication between individuals. A social representation is a set of concepts, statements, and explanations originating in daily life in the course of inter-individual communication. The purpose…