Surveys 776 K-12 students from a rural Indiana school district, using various personal-attribute and personal-history inventories, to see whether students' self-concept scores correlated with their teachers' ratings of students' at-risk behaviors on the Potential Dropout Checklist. Although the personal-attribute inventories across all grade…

Although science and technology are interrelated fields of endeavor, they possess different knowledge bases and procedures. By teaching students how to solve both scientific and technological problems, secondary school educators can increase their literacy. In turn, students' confidence in dealing with the world will deepen, their individuality…

The paradox that schools should promote equality of opportunity for minority students and quality education for majority students, but that they cannot foster both goals at once, is explored. Discarding the current definitions makes it possible to propose a model in which equality and quality are mutually supporting and enhancing. (SLD)

Examines how social conditions can become social problems and argues that there are objective ways of determining the scale of a particular problem. The paper supports its argument through examinations of prohibition, the decline in tobacco consumption, and the war on drugs. (GLR)

Discusses the meaning of the terms vowel, consonant, and syllable, focusing on the phonetic and phonological aspects of their definitions. The article points out that teachers of English need to take into account both the phonetic and phonological aspects, while at the same time carefully distinguishing between them. (six references) (MDM)

Developmental evaluation is proposed as a term to describe certain long-term partnering relationships with clients who are, themselves, engaged in ongoing program development. Rather than a model, developmental evaluation is a relationship founded on a shared purpose and is a way of being useful in innovative settings. (SLD)

Serious issues in empowerment evaluation are articulated to help ensure that this enthusiastically presented concept will not mislead evaluators and result in lowering the field's professional standards. Analysis and recommendations are provided for the adoption, development, and implementation of an objectivist evaluation that conforms to…

Staff development as a transferable package of bite-sized knowledge pieces is outdated. To implement reform plans, teachers must be able to discuss, think about, try out, and hone new practices. Teachers can learn by observing children, adopting new subject-matter approaches, using strategies for learning together, integrating assessment with…

Defines the concept of "audience" as a theoretical concept for writing instructors and readers. Discusses its relationship to the teaching of English. (HB)

Discusses the importance of freedom of the press, especially for scholastic journalism. Notes the tension that exists between government and the press. Defines the fundamental goal of the press as informing the people. Emphasizes that the role of the press, both scholastic and otherwise, has changed to meet modern conditions. Discusses the role of…

This brief article defines portfolio assessment; explains its use with students having disabilities; and provides 60 references to journal articles, monographs, reports, and conference papers, chosen to represent a cross-section of research-based, practitioner-oriented, and theoretical positions. (DB)

Argues that a holistic approach to defining quality is helpful to technical communicators, who often must ensure quality without knowing what is meant by quality in a given instance. Describes a holistic model of quality that includes four emphases: internal, external, subjective, and objective. Notes that the definition of quality differs…

This second article of the special section on chaos theory addresses implications of the definition of chaotic behavior for its measurement. The requirements to test the presence of chaotic relations among variables are in agreement with the conceptual and methodological hallmarks of behavioral assessment. (SLD)

Describes an experience during classroom discussion of Alice Walker's "Roselily" that led a teacher to revise her understanding of multiculturalism. Defines three problematic yet popular approaches to understanding the differences in culture in the United States and then presents a fourth approach that encourages students to see themselves and…

Exhorts 1994 University of San Diego graduates to invest their talents in serving the common good, whatever their chosen professions. Professionals have the capacity for welcoming complexity, acquiring information without being overwhelmed by it, planning without being controlled by their plans, discovering relationships, and creating meaning from…