The National Center on Accessible Educational Materials for Learning (National AEM Center) at CAST is a technical assistance (TA) center funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP). The purpose of the Center is to improve educational and employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities through…

Tragic events in recent years underscore the need for school to be a safe and positive learning environment for every student. In the absence of a safe and positive learning environment, a student may feel disconnected, disregard consequences, and engage in bullying or other destructive behaviors. These conditions can foreshadow acts of violence…

This CD ROM is designed for use by teachers singly or in groups. It may also be used by technical assistance providers preparing to work with teachers. The CD ROM provides an interactive tool to help teachers analyze and interpret standardized test data, use data to plan for effective instruction, develop classroom assessments that align with…

The use of advisory committees is well established in the public school system. The purpose of advisory committees is to provide leadership, guidance and technical assistance to maintain, improve and develop quality career and technical education programs. This manual is written for those planning to form new advisory technical skills committees,…

This book discusses the content consultation process as undertaken by scholars (professors or advanced graduate students) in all fields to be performed as a regular activity and run as a business. Chapter 1 offers an overview and description of consultation practice. Chapter 2 discusses indirect marketing of consultation services for scholars.…

This document's three-fold purpose is to give guidance to schools that will be using technical assistance, to raise important considerations for those resource units that provide such assistance, and to point out areas of concern to Pennsylvania Department of Education planners. Included are four articles by University of Pittsburgh faculty…

This manual, designed for individuals, agencies, and organizations interested in preventing and intervening in youth violence, is a guide to guides, a map of resources on prevention and intervention. Development of the manual was guided by a number of prevention principles, chiefly, the belief that collaboration is essential for effective youth…

This resource directory lists assistance groups that can help a school improve to meet the objectives of the Chicago (Illinois) School Improvement initiative. The assistance groups listed differ in several ways. Some specialize in improving reading or mathematics, for example, while others offer a broader range of school restructuring advice. The…

This manual for volunteer teachers from Canada traveling to the West Indies to assist host governments with improving their teachers' skills describes the organization sponsoring the teachers, the nature of the volunteers' duties, and practical aspects of the stay abroad. Two opening sections describe the Organization for Cooperation in Overseas…

The following considerations are of major importance to the persons who act as technical assisters for the Long Range Plan for School Improvement (LRPSI) in Pennsylvania: (1) long-range planning should be viewed as a deliberative and participative process; its steps should not be considered in isolation from each other; (2) comprehensive needs…

Inclusion is a way of providing a normalized educational experience for all children with disabilities. Educators differ, however, on the meaning of inclusion, from full-inclusion advocates to those who assert "inclusive" means that learning needs are met in a range of service delivery contexts. Three components of inclusionary schooling that are…

These two documents are products of a project to improve the capability of the Pennsylvania Regional Staff Development Centers to provide current, research-based workplace literacy training and technical assistance to adult basic and literacy education programs. The final report describes these project activities: development of training materials…

Section 2 of the 1980 version of Pennsylvania's Long Range Plan for School Improvement (LRPSI) might be characterized as a "catch-all." The technical assistant faces the task of making connections both within this section, entitled "Management Planning," and among the remaining four sections of LRPSI. The following directives…

These eleven papers focus on the need for technology education (TE) to address technological problem solving from a more holistic and appropriate level--less high tech, more thoughtful, and using available resources. "Philosophical Rationale for Appropriate Technology (AT)" (Robert C. Wicklein, Charles J. Kachmar) discusses concerns and…

This document provides a framework for academic and career/technical teachers who want to raise students' achievement through real-life projects reflecting the rigorous academic and technical standards needed for further learning in the workplace and postsecondary education. The document begins with definitions of the six A's of project-based…