This report displays summary results from the Wisconsin Student Assessment System 1994-95 Eighth Grade Knowledge and Concepts Examinations for all Wisconsin school districts and schools with an eighth grade. Statewide data for 57,388 of Wisconsin's 58,821 eighth graders are reported; certain categories, such as limited English speaking students,…

This document presents workshop results and participants' reports from the international conference "Train the Trainers in Information and Communication Technology." The participants consisted of 18 women and one man from Czechoslovakia, Russia, Latvia, Bulgaria, Romania, Mongolia, Jordan, Egypt, and the Philippines. Eleven reports were presented…

This book is written to help teachers incorporate a more realistic view of the world, respect for diversity, and a sense of shared humanity into all areas of their work with children aged 3 to 8 years. It focuses on young children's understanding of differences, their interpersonal and intergroup relationships, and related teaching practices,…

A longitudinal study documented the classroom experiences of 4 case study children from preschool through grade 2. The children studied were thought to be at-risk: Ani, a profoundly deaf child of hearing parents; Mark, a child of an immigrant family struggling to learn their way in a strange culture and language; and Caitlin and Ira,…

This monograph presents 11 papers on a study of the problem of specific diagnosis with children who do not communicate effectively. About 500 children with inadequate communication skills, selected as having a developmental language disorder, autism, or low IQ without autistic features, were studied by a multidisciplinary team. Data collected…

A pilot validity study was conducted of the use of eighth-grade language arts portfolios for ninth-grade English placement decisions (academic or general) in a school district that consists of a city and an independent borough. Portfolios offered an opportunity to collect and examine multiple measures of performance for decisions previously made…

This book examines the solutions that various members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) nations have attempted to the question of whether schooling of immigrant and language minority children should be organized with the intention of assimilating them into the dominant culture, or whether their cultural and…

This document presents evaluation results for Cicero Public School District 99 for the Illinois Title VII Special Alternative Program Grant for the 1994-1995 school year. This was the first year of funding of the special alternative grant and the BRIDGES program, which provided collaborative teams of bilingual and English-as-a-second-language…

The report of the Cox Working Group on the British national curriculum, "English for Ages 5 to 16," includes recommendations for including in the curriculum the study of literature in English from other cultures. The papers of this collection show some ways in which the recommendations of the Working Group may be put into practice and…

Three chapters discuss language usage in the classroom: "Language in the Classroom" (Jack Thomson); "Directions for Research into Classroom Communication" (Douglas Barnes); and "Teachers' Attitudes to Usage" (Ken Watson). The first article discusses how students view their classroom, with actual examples from a newspaper survey. Various teaching…

Prompted by repeated failure on a required English language proficiency test by a large proportion of undergraduates, educators at Cardinal Stritch College (Wisconsin) conducted a study to determine predictors of failure or success on the test, and whether revision of course placement standards should be considered to improve test performance.…

This case study involved designing an electronic-based environment to explore the effectiveness of electronic mail (e-mail) as a writing tool for dialogue journaling. The setting for this study was an intermediate-level reading and writing class in the American English Institute Program on the campus of a large public university. Over a period of…

Although portfolio assessment is becoming increasingly popular, it may not survive unless portfolio scoring can meet the demands of large-scale assessment standards. The results of studies of interrater reliability with large-scale portfolio assessments have been mixed. This paper reports the scoring results of a nationwide portfolio pilot in…

This practicum report describes the design and implementation of an oral motor program to increase the verbal communication skills of seven pre-kindergarten children with developmental delays, including hypotonia in oral motor development with moderate to severe articulation difficulties. Collaborative planning by the pre-kindergarten special…

These workbooks are part of a Mexican series of instructional materials designed for Spanish speaking adults who are in the process becoming literate or have recently become literate in their native language. They provide readings and exercises for developing literacy skills. Pictures and fill-in-the blank exercises appear frequently. Volume 1…