Education specialists have written volumes on the best ways to help children learn to read and write, but who is helping them navigate the potentially treacherous waters of social interactions? While in school to study, children are also preoccupied with understanding the rules governing social relationships. Issues of trust and loyalty, rivalry…

This paper assembles innovative ideas from several disciplines and offers an integrated discussion for improving TESL/TEFL curriculum design, specifically for individuals from peripheral social contexts and to address the global demand for ESL/EFL teachers. Overall, the suggested innovations serve to: (1) increase program accessibility to…

Turning Points helps middle schools create challenging, caring, and equitable learning communities that meet the needs of young adolescents as they reach the "turning point" between childhood and adulthood. Based on more than a decade of research and experience, this comprehensive school reform model focuses on improving student learning through…

School and district administrators, as well as policymakers, are increasingly recognizing that early education and intervention services for young children have a direct and positive impact on later school performance and quality of life. But which programs and services should be operated and funded? To answer that question, this book highlights…

Today's increasingly complex financial services market offers consumers a vast array of products, services, and providers to choose from to meet their financial needs. While this degree of choice provides consumers with a great number of options, it also requires that they be equipped with the information, knowledge, and skills to evaluate their…

This sixth annual "Performance Report for Ohio's Colleges and Universities" uses a rich variety of data and data sources to describe higher education in Ohio from students' academic preparation to learning environments, student progress, degree achievement, and licensure and employment outcomes. In addition, the report provides a wealth…

The self- and group-initiated and on-the-job learning activities of low-income women were explored in a study of a small group of low-income mothers living in the greater Vancouver area of British Columbia, Canada. During the study, the low-income women attended meetings during which a participating researcher documented the women's experiences.…

The school-to-work (STW) movement began in the mid-1980s in response to concerns about the U.S. education system's ability to prepare most students for the "new economy." Despite the fact that most of the STW programs and activities funded by the School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1994 have only recently been established, a fairly…

Drawing on empirical research and theoretical writings, this book examines how concepts such as risk society and individualization may be used in the field of youth studies. It explores young peoples' identities, youth cultures, and a multiplicity of ways in which risk can be understood and influence youth policy agendas in the future. Chapter 1,…

The various parties interested in reauthorization of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program are considering a number of issues related to the program's work requirements. The following policy questions have sparked particular debate: (1) the impact that allowing additional activities to count toward federal participation rates…

The National Research Council formed a Committee on Educational Interventions for Children with Autism and charged the committee with integrating the scientific, theoretical, and policy literature and creating a framework for evaluating the scientific evidence concerning the effects and features of educational interventions for young children with…

This book discusses how best to instruct students, reviewing and evaluating the many educational reforms and innovations that have been proposed and employed over the past century and comparing achievement rates resulting from traditional, teacher-centered approaches with those resulting from progressive, student-centered methods. Findings…

The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K), selected a nationally representative sample of approximately 22,000 kindergartners in the fall of 1998 and is following these children through the end of the fifth grade. Baseline data about these children, their families, and their kindergarten programs were collected…

With inputs of labour and capital slowing, sustaining high growth rates in Korea will increasingly depend on total factor productivity gains, which are in turn driven to a large extent by innovation. While a number of Korean firms are at the world technology frontier in areas such as ICT, the diffusion of technology to lagging sectors is a…

One of the most important provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is the requirement that all teachers of core academic subjects be "highly qualified" by the end of school year 2005-2006. Key principles for recruiting and preparing future teachers have been identified as raising academic standards for teachers and lowering…