This article considers links between instructional group size and student engagement, caseload and academic achievement, and caseload and special educator attrition. Findings indicate larger caseload and group sizes negatively affect math and reading achievement, student engagement increases when group sizes decrease, and high teacher attrition…

Examines the conflict which can arise when differing cultural practices of families and child care facilities clash. Presents a case study that exemplifies the potential conflict. Provides advice for child care practitioners on how to combine two differing perspectives and how to move from arguments and misunderstandings to common concerns. (SD)

Examined preservice teachers' perspectives on learning to plan within a Vygotskian-designed, reflective program. Participants made curriculum decisions and revisions and reflected on technical and conceptual aspects of teaching discussed in methods courses. Case studies of participants' self-reports indicated concerns for individualized learning…

Used alone, mandated standards and tests provide a dangerously narrow approach to accountability. Superintendents' proper response is layering and realignment-working to improve standards' validity and contribution to school improvement. Superintendents should provide leadership that increases schools' adaptability and spurs environmental changes.…

Argues that the ways in which other languages, such as Spanish, have been dealt with in the schools, particularly in bilingual programs, should not be applied to Pueblo languages. Pueblo culture, history, and politics have evolved a different way of thinking about language and require different educational solutions. Partnerships between Pueblo…

Investigates the concerns and difficulties of international students from non-English speaking countries during the Teaching English as a Second Language (TESOL) practicum component of a master's TESOL program. Interviews with students before, during, and after the practicum and examination of their journals and assignments indicated that they had…

Examined how social aspects of a peer collaborative context related to differences in adolescents' interpretations of task and social problems while collaborating with peers in a naturalistic classroom setting. Found that salience of social problems, gender, and friendship were important for understanding project performance. Explored the value of…

A study examined the causal effects of distal and proximal risk factors for the use of gateway substances by 136 Mexican American adolescents (ages 11-15) identified with learning disabilities. Factors included peer delinquency, school satisfaction, self-esteem, language acculturation, socialization acculturation, self-reported delinquency,…

Examined views of urban American Indian parents regarding foster care and American Indian family issues. Addressed themes of: (1) discouragement from working within foster care system; (2) role of culture in caregiving; (3) differing definitions of family; and (4) effects of historical pain due to past family disruption. Formulated guidelines for…

This article discusses results of two recent surveys in Taiwan. Survey results indicate 99 percent of preschool program directors (n=134) believe they cannot provide services to certain children because of inadequate qualified personnel or lack of appropriate facilities and parents (n=109) of young children with disabilities face many problems.…

This study examined whether aggression is contagious in day care classrooms. In a low-income, urban day care center, it was hypothesized that aggression was more likely to occur immediately following an aggressive act than when no aggression occurred. The prediction was tested using a newly developed randomization process and the hypothesis was…

This article describes critical events that have shaped gifted education, including: publication of "A Nation At Risk," the Roeper School, differentiated curriculum, concepts of intelligence, the Marland Report, the Torrance Tests, Teachers' College at Columbia University achievements, the legacy of Leta S. Hollingworth, Sputnik, and…

This article describes events that have shaped gifted education, including: deployment of Sputnik, the Marland Report, advocacy organizations, curriculum differentiation, brain research, gifted residential schools, the Richardson Study, the Javits Gifted and Talented Students Act, "National Excellence: A Case for Developing America's…

Examined social adjustment among high school seniors who had immigrated from the former Soviet Union as early adolescents, investigating cultural influences and gender differences. Students considered the school's role to be academic. They felt more comfortable with same-culture peers and were only marginally influenced by the host culture. There…

Explored gender differences in school achievement and perceived parental and familial influences on school grades with 525 rural and urban secondary students. Differences in achievement and perceptions can be attributed to parents' differential socialization practices for females and males, and similarities to less sex-role stereotyping by…