Thirty-eight high-school special education students were surveyed after graduation concerning their work history, career roles, involvement with social agencies, life satisfaction, and career skill ratings. Approximately 50 percent of the group were competitively employed, mostly part time. Subjective quality of life was not related to any…

Utilized an experimental design structure across 4 scientific contexts which tested 18 boys and 18 girls who were closely matched for ability levels and curriculum background. No gender differences were detected in the scientific contexts of observation, reporting, or planning skills, and there was no differential performance on the use of…

The Rostock Longitudinal Study, which has followed 247 at-risk children from birth to age 14, seeks to identify factors contributing to interindividual developmental differences. Results reported underscore the limited prognostic value of single risk factors, the diminishing impact of organic perinatal risk factors over time, and the increasing…

Twenty-five elementary students with learning disabilities and mild mental disabilities were assessed in math and spelling before and after summer vacation using grade-level curriculum-based measurement materials. Students appeared to have regressed when raw scores were analyzed, but appeared not to have regressed when z-scores were analyzed.…

Argues that combining public and school libraries may overcome the scarcity that slows library development in third world countries. The relationship between libraries and development, factors contributing to successful combined libraries, and the ability of libraries to support literacy efforts are discussed. (Contains 29 references.) (KRN)

Two students (ages 10-11) with learning disabilities exhibited improved on-task behavior and academic performance during self-monitoring procedures, with additional increases resulting from self-graphing procedures. However, little improvement in on-task behavior and academic productivity was noted with the introduction of self-reinforcement and…

Study compared classroom performance of novice, advanced beginner, and expert teachers, examining subject matter knowledge and delivery, educational connoisseurship, nonverbal behavior, and systematic observation. Results indicate teachers without pedagogical training are less able to keep students on task, provide appropriate feedback, deliver…

Seventeen students (ages 10-15) with moderate mental retardation were assessed on their ability to analyze orally presented sentences into words and words into syllables and phonemes. Subjects receiving code-emphasis reading instruction performed significantly better on more difficult phoneme manipulation tasks than did subjects receiving…

The Carolina Longitudinal Learning Disabilities Project identified 42 first- and second-grade students with learning disabilities (LD) and compared their development over 5 years with that of randomly selected peers. Different variables were predictive for the two groups. Teacher perceptions of intelligence, measured intelligence quotient, grade…

This study examined effects on test-taking performance of enhancing the examiner's speech by means of an inexpensive mild gain hard-wired assistive listening device. Subjects were 11 preschoolers with mild expressive language delays. Results revealed a significant reduction in test-taking time in the amplified condition. (Author/DB)

This study, involving 20 normally developing 4-year olds, found no visual sequential recall differences between direct selection and scanning in task performance. However, subjects correctly recalled fewer sequential symbols represented by Blissymbols than by Picsyms, and recalled significantly fewer three-symbol sequences than two-symbol…

This study found that siblings (n=19) of severely autistic children, siblings of children with Down's syndrome, and siblings of normal children did not differ on measures of perceived self-competence or parents' report of social competence. Siblings of autistic children had more internalizing and externalizing behavior problems than siblings of…

After explaining performance assessment, the article describes a Michigan staff development workshop to teach educators performance assessment, explains program content and methods for teaching program assessment, illustrates how performance assessment was taught to students, and presents recommendations for effective implementation of performance…

This study investigated return-to-task rates on hard and easy tasks that secondary students projected for scenario characters and for themselves. Data revealed significantly greater rates of return to easy tasks. Girls had significantly higher return-to-task rates. Evidence of self-presentation bias was present. (SM)

Discusses pedagogical principles for performance-based instruction and demonstrates how these principles can be applied to foreign-language classroom instruction, curriculum design, materials development, and proficiency testing. (Author/VWL)