Recommendations designed to assist states in the creation of meaningful definitions of types of schools and students for use in the Council of Chief State School Officers' Education Data Improvement Project are presented. The Project's goals are to promote and facilitate the reform and refinement of the National Center for Education Statistics'…

Critical thinking is often defined as that which a particular instrument measures. The most prominent tests are the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal, the Ennis-Weir Critical Thinking Essay Test, and the Cornell Critical Thinking Tests. Watson and Glaser's (1980) view of critical thinking is "a composite of attitudes, knowledge, and…

This report on rural child care in Ontario provides a literature review, a discussion of the term "rural," summaries of related studies, descriptions of program models, and an analysis of statistical data indicating the need for services. The literature review focuses on geographic, economic, and political factors; staffing; rural and…

A study of the vocabulary adequacy of college students using words from a daily newspaper duplicated an earlier study using words from "Reader's Digest" which indicated a low level of adequacy. Two groups of 295 and 397 college juniors and seniors in teacher education courses indicated on a list of 80 words taken from a daily newspaper which ones…

The purpose of this focused newsletter is to give teachers who know little or nothing of computers some background on which to base further investigation and decisions. It begins by explaining what a computer is and defining such terms as software, hardware, memory, input/output devices, and disk drive. The newsletter then outlines four major uses…

The manual examines issues in determining eligibility criteria for students with serious emotional disturbance (SED). Educational and clinical definitions of SED are compared, components of the educational definiton are examined, and the issue of differentiating behavioral disorders from serious emotional disturbance is considered. The assessment…

High school debate style should emphasize persuasion, information, and logic above other skills. Recent trends, such as excessive speed of delivery and excessive amounts of evidence used in debate, have tended to inhibit the effective acquisition of those skills for students. Potential methods for moderating speed and evidence use are not allowing…

Whether large-scale or small farms dominate, a county's farm structure is influenced not only by changes within farming but also by key factors such as nonfarm economic activity, geography, and population growth. Large-farm counties where agriculture dominates the economy are concentrated in the Plains, Midwest, and Mississippi Delta. Small-farm…

This bulletin is divided into three parts. The first part deals with the definition of enterprise education as a program of study concerned with self-employment; starting, controlling, and developing one's own business; and being enterprising and developing the personal effectiveness skills required to operate a business successfully. The second…

The handbook outlines Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) rules regarding the education of handicapped students. A chart format is used to present applicable Federal regulations, state law, and SBOE rules. The following topics are among those considered under clarifications of definitions in federal regulations and state law: handicapped…

There are several factors that account for the absence of college programs that adequately address students with dyslexia-related behavior, but probably none is more significant than the governmental definition regarding the condition itself. The federal law that provides for the special instruction of dyslexic students explicitly excludes those…

Four influential studies on school effectiveness reported by Brookover and Lezotte (1979), Edmonds and Frederiksen (1979), Phi Delta Kappa (1980), and Rutter and others (1979) are limited in their usefulness as recipes for creating effective schools by the following four issues: (1) The four studies differ in their definition of what…

Intended for use with both elementary and secondary school students, the activity pages and information in this booklet are designed to make the collegiate dictionary entry less confusing and more usable. The activities in the booklet help students (1) locate entry words by using guide words and alphabetizing; (2) read dictionary pronunciation…

This paper provides a detailed analysis of evidence concerning benefits of parent involvement in early intervention programs. It is maintained that two dimensions should be considered in defining parent involvement in early intervention programs: (1) the type of activities in which parents engage or the types of resources and assistance which are…

Environmental education is a subject which attracts international attention. Because of the rapid development of environmental education, there is a lack of uniformity in the terminology used in different countries. In order for specialists speaking different languages to be able to communicate new information and concerns, there needs to be some…