Examines differences in home environments of higher and lower achieving Puerto Rican fifth- and sixth-graders in urban Pennsylvania. Investigates parents' aspirations, concern for use of language, parental reinforcement, knowledge of child's educational progress, and value orientations. Links home environment to achievement. Discusses implications…

Research reveals that high school students in small schools participate more in extracurricular activities than their peers in large schools; that a high degree of student participation provides opportunities for enhancing leadership, responsibility, and motivation; that students in small schools feel needed; and that the benefits of…

Maintains that efforts to initiate classroom discussions of controversial topics often provoke uncomfortable silence. Describes a classroom exercise that encourages students to analyze from a sociological perspective classroom dynamics that make discussion difficult. (CFR)

Participation of 18 parents of young children with disabilities in field-site experiences for graduate school interns was examined. Parents indicated support for their involvement in such training programs. Implications for using families in personnel training in early intervention are addressed. (Author/SW)

The Citizens' Campaign Against Hunger and Poverty and For Life is a nongovernmental organization in Brazil that recruited and organized more than three million volunteers to distribute food baskets, support gardening and water projects, provide basic health care, create jobs, assist homeless children, and encourage local and state governments to…

Maintains that college students have been the object of repeated sociological research in countries formerly in the Soviet Union (USSR). Reports on a study of more than 3,000 Russian students and professors. Includes five tables indicating student attitudes toward religion, student behavior, and participation in outside-of-class cultural…

Maintains that the National Council for the Social Studies national standards advocate understanding of and participation in democratic citizenship by all students, including those at the elementary level. Provides recommendations for developing a democratic classroom and building a democratic school community. (CFR)

Characteristics of eighth and ninth graders in 92 honors, regular, and remedial English classes (1,564 students); the quality of instruction; and links between instruction and achievement were studied in an organizational analysis of the effects of ability grouping. Student participation and discussion were higher in honors classes. (SLD)

Educational participation among rural Nepalese school-age children was significantly related to individual student characteristics (gender, age, contribution to household activities and earnings, distance from school, father's educational attainment); household characteristics (educational attitudes, socioeconomic status); teacher characteristics;…

Discusses strategies for teaching Spanish to students with learning disabilities. These strategies include using flexible materials and alternative assessment methods, accepting individual students and ascertaining their disabilities, adapting to student needs, using a multisensory approach, and teaching students study skills particular to…

Two public forums addressed educational goals established by the Delaware State Board of Education involving public support for quality education and partnerships between families, communities, and schools. Representatives from rural schools, communities, community organizations, and professional agencies discussed primarily the concept of…

Examines ways to involve language students in the test-making process. Discusses student-generated test items, test goals, outdoor paired vocabulary testing, interactive grading, and peer testing. Argues that student learning is more important than test scores. (nine references) (MDM)

Discusses activities that can help language students use the concept of personal competence to become better learners. Teachers can list student and teacher responsibilities, ask students for feedback on class activities, and implement student suggestions to accommodate individual and group learning styles. (three references) (MDM)

Multi-Media Detectives was a project where fifth graders in three Michigan school districts were linked to a children's bulletin board. The goal was to have students "think global but link local" by using online resources to search for local facts and local celebrities and to bring them to life via technology. (JMV)

This high school language arts teacher combined the ideas of Total Quality Management (TQM) with traditional and cooperative learning techniques in his Journalism I class. Students used the process to create a quality paper. Students exhibited fewer behavior problems and greater interest, enthusiasm, and pride in their work. (JB)