Describes a California State Department of Education reading assessment that indicated improvement in reading achievement for some third-grade classrooms and decline in others. Explores the "teacher" factors that account for the difference. (HTH)

This report examines the extent to which young people work in California agriculture and describes work-related hazards and injuries among young agricultural workers. Data were gathered through a literature review; discussion groups with parents, community groups, and English-as-a-second-language students in the San Joaquin Valley; surveys of 295…

Developed as a vehicle of communication for the Reading Recovery Council of North America, this journal represents an international effort to connect researchers, teachers, and all those interested in early literacy. Articles in the first issue of this fourth volume are: "The Development of Literate Potential in Literature-Based and…

The California Department of Education convened a task force to determine how the learning environment can be shaped to support statewide educational reforms designed to make California schools places of community pride that also help students excel. This two-part report outlines design implications common to all grade levels, as well as those…

A historical study of three school administrative services--school health, psychology, and curriculum--in 30 California school districts during 1930-1970 used an institutional environment approach to find that balance among institutions and agencies governing school systems, not organizational size, led to greater diffusion and retention of the…

Reports on an investigation of the out-of-school literacy practices of two African American urban high school students. Conclusions are drawn about the complex and productive ways these youths use literacy practices in their social environments. Implications are made for instruction using youth culture as a bridge to writing development. (SLD)

California's strawberry industry offers a case study of both California agriculture's dependence on the exploitation of an imported peasantry, and the destructive consequences of the "free market" and a deliberate low-wage economy. Describes a new form of sharecropping, tantamount to debt peonage; lax federal enforcement of existing…

Constructivism, which holds that knowledge is created out of each individual's own experience, is recapturing researchers' attention. To constructivists, teachers are not omniscient oracles, but nutritionists providing an environment for children to grow their own knowledge. Students might learn division by planning a field trip instead of…

Describes a series of environmental education instructional units for grades K-6 developed by the Think Earth Consortium that cover topics such as conservation, pollution control, and waste reduction. Provides testimony from one sixth-grade teacher that field tested the second-grade unit. (MDH)

As a field, special education presents an excellent case study of the paradox of differentiation and integration, wherein we seek solutions through increased specialization but, in so doing, we redefine a problem in terms of discrete parts at the expense of the whole. As Thomas Skrtic pointed out more than a decade ago, a large and ever-widening…

Educational researchers have paid little attention to "critique"--an activity young artists routinely use to assess and advance their creative projects. It is an activity from which they have a lot to learn, particularly in the context of community-based arts collaboratives. In school classrooms where teachers emphasize group projects…

Every month, "Leadership" features articles written in an informal, conversational style that provide practical information for school administrators. This issue of "Leadership" contains the following titles: (1) "A Culture of Greatness"; (2) "Achieving and Sustaining Greatness" (Sandra Carsten); (3)…

This article looks at how behavioral research can be an effective tool to use during the redesign process of university plazas. It also summarizes the research that was conducted at University Union Plaza at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly), a 30-year-old plaza that is scheduled to be redesigned. Through the use of behavioral…

There are nearly 2 million Southeast Asians (SEAs) currently living in the United States. The overwhelming majority are refugees from the Southeast Asian wars and political turmoil in the latter half of the 20th century. While an abundance of literature has documented the significant war-related traumas that SEA refugees have suffered, very little…

Based in the context of challenges faced by archives when managing digital projects, this article explores options of looking outside the existing expertise of archives staff to find collaborative partners. In teaming up with other departments and organizations, the potential scope of traditional archival digitization projects is expanded beyond…