This manual for first grade teachers provides suggestions and teaching materials that reflect the multicultural composition of New York City's (New York) public schools. An introduction describes the philosophy that supports a high-quality, developmentally appropriate program through a multicultural perspective. The manual is organized into the…

Designed for parents, educators, lawyers, and others, this booklet focuses on limited-English-proficient (LEP) students' legal rights to an appropriate education. Contents are as follows: overview of state and federal legal requirements of education programs for LEP students; initial identification of LEP students; requirements for English…

A 2-year study was conducted to determine whether service delivery variables in Head Start programs have a direct, positive effect on child performance and home environment. The study sample of 402 four-year-old children was drawn from 12 Head Start programs in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. The centers represented three types of models:…

An exploration of sources of gang activity in an urban area used ethnographic research with researchers posing as mathematics tutors for 1 year in a school comprising seventh and eighth grades. The "tutors" attended six eighth grade mathematics classes and acted as assistants to the teacher. The classes of 25 to 30 students lasted 40 minutes and…

The program goal of family literacy is to use early intervention to break the cycle of illiteracy perpetuated by parents' undereducation. This paper describes family literacy as a dropout prevention strategy that should be most heavily concentrated on the prenatal through 8-year-old child; a child ready for school is less likely to become a…

This study approaches the issue of quality in the teaching force using a microeconomic framework that applies the concept of "opportunity cost." As teaching is a low-paid profession, accepting a teaching position may be associated with high opportunity costs (foregone benefits) for more academically talented college students because they could…

The objective of this study was to begin to examine middle school classrooms for examples of either gender equity or gender bias. Data were collected by visiting 80 classes in 10 middle schools in central Connecticut. Classes observed included 6th, 7th, and 8th grade classes in social studies, mathematics, science, language arts, foreign language,…

This study examined the effect of formal instruction on the acquisition of three grammatical structures (simple past tense, present perfect, and passive construction) by Chinese adolescent learners of English. Comparison focused on the effects of two methods: explicit formal and implicit formal instruction. In the explicit method, students are…

A difficult task in creating rich, exploratory interactive learning environments is building an environment that is truly engaging. Engagement can be defined as the nexus of intrinsic knowledge and/or interest and external stimuli that promote the initial interest in, and continued use of a computer-based learning environment. Complete and total…

Noting that developing a Head Start family partnership is an ongoing process that begins at enrollment and continues through transition out of the program, this guide for directors and staff looks at the process of developing such partnerships and provides the skills and information needed to form meaningful partnerships. Following an introductory…

Following a discussion of opportunities for improving academic rigor that addresses the challenges of curriculum redesign, theories of learning and multimedia design, and academic departments and multimedia design, this paper focuses on the migration of an introductory course on library research skills at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln from a…

This paper discusses the development of a learning approach based on the unique needs of adult learners who are required to learn and use new information technologies. It establishes how the "Inquisitivism" learning approach has evolved from a synthesis of key cognitive learning theories into one cohesive approach and how the…

This chapter draws on an extensive literature review to examine factors that influence the access and achievement of American Indians and Alaska Natives in higher education. American Indians are less likely to attend college than other U.S. ethnic groups. This underrepresentation is partly due to precollege attributes: low scores on college…

Based on interviews with 29 librarians at a midwestern research university, this publication serves as a benchmark for what it is like to work as an academic librarian in a U.S. research university in the mid-1990's and considers changes occurring within the wider field of librarianship. Chapter 1 begins with a broad overview of the concept and…

This document reproduces selected information from the U.S. Department of Education's "Twentieth Annual Report to Congress on the Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act" (1998). These selections consist of text and data tables related to two programs for young children and their families under the Individuals…