We explored how a progress monitoring and instructional management system can be used to help educators differentiate instruction and meet the wide-ranging learning needs of their increasingly diverse classrooms. We compared classrooms in 24 states that used a curriculum-based progress monitoring and instructional management system, Accelerated…

Discover how two of education's most powerful frameworks can team up to provide your school with a comprehensive and in-depth approach to ensure all students are learning at maximum levels. The leading experts on Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design explain how to connect these two approaches and use their combined power to: (1)…

The 1997 reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) called for an increase in student involvement in individualized education program (IEP) meetings. To determine the extent of student involvement in educational planning, this study observed 109 middle and high school IEP meetings; 90% of the participants completed a…

Hypertext can be characterized as an electronic system that works by association rather than indexing, and furnishes information in a dynamic, nonsequential manner that does not limit the content by structure or organization. A more technical definition specifies that hypertext is a technique for organizing information in a complex manner that…

Elementary school teachers (N=109) were surveyed regarding their use of pretesting to determine individual student instructional needs prior to teaching units of the regular curriculum. Teachers varied in their amount of teaching experience and possession of specialized endorsements--33 teachers had an endorsement in gifted/talented education and…

The first of two papers on individualized instruction notes that with the ever increasing demands for larger classes it is becoming more important for parents to make sure their child receives an education that will meet his or her individual needs. Children have to understand what they read and understand what they do not read but infer from…

Differentiation practices are defined by the Scottish Office Education Department as the identification of, and effective provision for, a range of abilities in one classroom, such that pupils in a particular class need not study the same things at the same pace and in the same way at all times. This issue of the "Interchange" describes…

A study examined the Adult Diploma Program (ADP), a project of the Minnesota High School Graduation Incentives Program, which gives 2 years of state aid to qualified learners to complete their requirements. Its purpose was to explore how persons enrolled in ADP find out about it, factors that led to making the decision to enroll in ADP, daily…

Developing more effective conceptions of the high school may require radically reducing its size. In today's big high schools, size ensures that control of students is a primary concern and prevents the development of a collegial atmosphere among teachers. Although research provides ample evidence of the superior social climates of small informal…

The essence of the computer revolution is yet to come, for computers are essentially generators of realities. Virtual reality (VR) is the next step in the evolutionary path; the user is placed inside the image and becomes a participant within the computational space. A VR computer generates a direct experience of the computational environment. The…

This report presents a case study evaluation of a mastery system of individualized instruction called Project Excellence at Ecole Secondaire Cochrane High School, Ontario. The curriculum consists of 20-unit learning guides in all courses. Students work in subject area resource centers and consult with teachers as needed. Teachers act as…

An examination was conducted by a teacher who was interested in how the responses of three multihandicapped students (7-8 years old) differed in one-to-one and one-to-three instructional arrangements given (1) the physical limitations of the students; (2) an activity that demanded much physical prompting; and (3) limited instructional resources.…

Several current approaches to evaluation stress the importance of making explicit the conceptual structure of a program--displaying the hierarchically related transactions which explain the program's movement from a set of "inputs" to a set of desired outcomes. However, individualized programs present particular difficulties in…

In order to individualize instruction for learning disabled students, tasks should be matched to students' abilities and learning styles. Two types of task modifications include modifying the task content to coincide with what students are ready to learn and modifying task processes and features to match how students prefer to learn. Readiness…

Learning centers are student centered. That is, instructional goals are matched to learner needs and desires and student learning is self-paced. Teachers coordinate the learning process while students explore and experiment with learning materials. The learning center has several advantages over the traditional classroom: (1) it is success…