Many young students are not finishing high school and even fewer are entering college. This book demonstrates how some teachers have created classrooms that work for children at risk. They use an integrated, inquiry-driven curriculum to create holistic, language- and literature-based classrooms. Chapter 1 describes the nature of being at risk for…

Regardless of whether a patient's health-care provider works from a traditional biomedical or a new biopsychosocial model, therapists and counselors need to work with patients and their families challenged by the onset of a serious illness. This book addresses this need and outlines the five goals of medical family therapy: (1) help the family…

A discussion of family literacy projects focuses on alternatives to traditional methods of program evaluation. In the first chapter, the distinction between standardized and alternative assessments is clarified and the special evaluation needs of family literacy projects are highlighted. The remainder of the handbook is intended to help program…

As part of a larger examination of student perspectives in science, social studies and communication arts, this report uses qualitative methodology to explore two teacher-researchers' collaborative teaching of social studies and students' construction of meaning in social studies. Teacher-researchers involved in the overall study included two…

This paper categorizes and discusses extracts from Baha'i Education. All extracts come from the writings and talks of Baha'u'llah, Abdu'l-Baha, and Shoghi Effendi. Section 1 discusses the nature and purpose of education, including financing education; discipline, perseverance, and order; purposes and principles of schools; establishment and…

A postcolonial analysis suggests the need for a new theory of education that supports a model of genuinely bicultural education in New Zealand. Ways in which mainstream education might be enhanced by Maori pedagogies are explored through interviews with a preservice primary school teacher of Maori descent. In the area of rules of practice, Maori…

This curriculum guide offers materials for a refugee awareness program, Flight to Hope, merging factual information with experiential learning activities to provide a holistic approach to understanding refugees for presentation in Catholic schools and involving parish participation. Included in notes on using and coordinating the program are a…

An instructional approach that promotes an interactive or experiential model rather than a reductionist model in special education is discussed. The approach, called instructional conversations, encourages students to use meaningful language without focusing on the correctness of form. The teacher's role is one of facilitating genuine dialogue…

The use of portfolio assessment as a method of evaluating the writing competence of elementary school students was studied. The study contained two components: (1) an empirical study of the utility and meaningfulness of using an analytic rubric developed for the evaluation of traditional writing samples to score student portfolios; and (2) a…

The assessment process in whole language classrooms in the Honolulu (Hawaii) School District is described. The development of alternative measures based on actual student performances was a natural outcome of the teachers' training and implementation of a holistic education/whole language program. Multiple and multidimensional assessment emerged…

Noting that the recent call for holistic models of schooling dictates a thorough investigation of more natural groupings of students, this collection of articles reviews available literature on multiage, nongraded, continuous progress classrooms. Divided into six sections, the chapters explore the overriding concerns and the pros and cons of such…

The purpose of this symposium on research in distance education was to continue the process of building the network of scholars and climate of cooperation and communication necessary for further development of distance education and to provide an opportunity for discussion. Four main areas of focus for the symposium were learning and…

This issue of "Perceptions" contains an introductory article by guest editor Herbert Foster--"A Variety of Programs"--and seven articles describing programs for educating emotionally disturbed children in New York. "A Very Special Place" (Susan Kosberg and Bernie Kosberg) describes a therapeutic camping milieu located…

An examination of the impact of principals' administrative styles on school climate and culture to explain the discrepancy between observed and quantitative analyses in principal evaluations is the purpose of this study. A 3-year study of four secondary school principals utilized qualitative methodology (observation and interviews) and…

The mission of vocational education has always been to provide a skilled work force for society. As society and work evolve through the influence of demographic, social, economic, technological, and political changes, the essential purposes of vocational education must be made appropriate for the emerging advanced technical society. To devise…