There is no question that middle school is currently the king, the overwhelming choice for middle level education. This favored grade configuration is coming under question, however, particularly in urban districts. Middle level grade configurations have a long history in U.S. public schools, but little research has been done and the results are…

Culture tends to be misplaced as a secondary instructional goal in most foreign language classrooms. Although research has suggested that a strong link exists between language and culture, the problem resides in how best to teach culture in the classroom. While this problem impacts all learners, it may affect high school students more because they…

Delaware Technical and Community College online courses are not properly focused to ensure instructors are effective in improving student achievement. First time online students are not given the proper tools when navigating online courses at the college. The focus at Delaware Tech should be on improving the format which students use when…

This report focuses on the seven original Youth Transition Demonstration (YTD) projects selected for funding in 2003. Three of the original seven projects were selected for a national random assignment evaluation in 2005; however, this report only focuses on program operations prior to joining the random assignment evaluation for the three…

This is an exploratory study suggesting ways of analysing challenges for developing countries in the move to greater inclusion of disabled children and young people in learning. The paper focuses on pedagogical challenges to realising more inclusive education. Pedagogy encompasses not only the practice of teaching and learning, but also the ideas…

Cultural beliefs about disability and related systems of special education affect the experience of children with disabilities and their parents. This article reviews research on the perceptions and experiences of parents who have preschool or elementary school-age children with disabilities in the United States and Japan. Parents' experiences…

The complexity of engineering and its integration into K-12 education have resulted in a variety of issues requiring sustained empirical research (Johnson, Burghardt, & Daugherty, 2008). One particular area of need, given the emphasis on teacher effects on student learning, is to research engineering-oriented teacher professional development. A…

School psychology training and practice have been substantially influenced by a series of documents referred to as "Blueprints." The second edition of the "Blueprint" directly led to the development of training standards for school psychology that addressed several domains of practice. Both preceding and simultaneous to the…

The needs of all service users include those related to physical, emotional, sexual and mental health. This article documents where child health needs are recognised and being met within family support services in the west of Ireland, investigates whether there is variation across different types of family support services and presents the views…

The PREPaRE Crisis Prevention and Intervention Curriculum is the first comprehensive curriculum developed and offered by NASP. PREPaRE's purpose is to build the capacity of schools at the local level to prevent, prepare for, respond to, and recover from crisis events. Embedded in this primary goal is the ability to foster systems change consistent…

This article examines how the states plan to implement the Programs of Study (POS) that were mandated by the 2006 reauthorization of the federal legislation for career and technical education. A coding system was developed for summarizing the methods described in the plans of all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, and the Virgin Islands.…

This article gives an overview of the perceptions of professional staff involved in the delivery of the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma programme at Turkish national schools. Overall, the results suggest that while many Turkish schools have staff who recognize the value of the IB Diploma programme, there are some major areas of concern…

This article reports on a project which was undertaken in 2006 to investigate the current modes and methods for delivering reference services in Australian academic libraries. The project included a literature review to assist in providing a definition of reference services as well as a snapshot of statistics showing staff and patron numbers from…

Learning a second language is a challenging endeavor, and, for decades now, proponents of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) have declared that help is on the horizon. As documented not only in the "CALICO Journal" over its 25-year history but also in other scholarly venues, research has demonstrated the value of CALL. Nevertheless,…

Many students now are receiving instruction in online environments created by universities, museums, corporations, and even students. What features of a given online course contribute to its effectiveness? This paper addresses that query by proposing and applying an analytic framework to five online introductory chemistry courses. Introductory…