The Trade Offs series, 15 20-minute television videotapes dealing with economics in students' daily lives, was found to be effective in teaching decision-making skills to gifted fifth and sixth graders. Teachers and students rated the series highly. (CL)

The Cooperative Learning Project Staff at Cleveland State University studied implementation effects of training and support teams on cooperative learning at nine middle schools. Findings showed that administrators should be trained with teachers and must shape an appropriate environment, recognize the importance of support teams, provide necessary…

A model is presented for group counseling with elementary students by school psychologists. A group counseling technique implemented with sixth-graders for the past four years is described. Group counseling may be appropriate for many students who need an intervention but do not qualify for formal placement. (BW)

Describes difficulties of Saint Paul's Saturn School of Tomorrow from planner, implementor, and evaluator viewpoints. The plan for a citywide, ungraded, downtown middle school called for an extended school year and the latest technology in a completely redesigned building with 4 teachers, 4 interns, and 162 students. Teachers were overworked, test…

Suggests that not everything in education has to be evaluated in terms of cognitive outcome measures. Describes a computer-mediated communication project that involved sixth-grade students in a private school in Montreal and slightly older students in a mainly Inuit town in the far northern part of Quebec. Discusses the actual benefits of the…

Incubators in the Classroom is an extension program designed to teach fourth-graders about egg hatching. More than 15,000 Indiana students have used the learning materials, which include incubators, lesson guides, and CD-ROM learning guides. The Purdue extension service is in the process of conducting critical evaluation of the program. (SK)

This article describes a jointly planned and jointly evaluated course offered through Washington State University General Extension. The purpose of the course was to improve instruction in elementary classrooms through use of competency-based training materials (Minicourses) from the Far West Laboratory for Educational Research and Development.…

Programs that have the potential to improve all intermediate grade students' opportunities for learning are identified and examined in this report. This 1989 review of over 200 programs focuses on 80 programs that stress high academic content or new access for educationally disadvantaged students in the middle grades. However, none can be labelled…

Describes and qualitatively evaluates National History Day as an educational program and suggests some of its implications for the teaching of history in the nation's schools. States that teachers should use a wide variety of primary source materials and instructional strategies to make the learning of history an active process. (GEA)

A recent action research experiment comparing individualistic and cooperative learning results in two seventh grade classrooms found that retention scores slightly favored the cooperative learning method. Questions arose concerning grade-sharing, relative difficulty of subject matter and multiple-choice questions, and student attitudes about the…

To influence children in deciding not to smoke, a program, Wisconsin Athletes Against Cancer, was designed and implemented in grades four through eight. Athletes served as role models and delivered anti-smoking messages. Athlete preparation, the presentation format, and feedback and evaluation methods are discussed. (JN)

Concern over low student achievement led to creation of a community-based Maryland mentoring program for at-risk African-American students. Mentoring was successfully used for teaching and coaching, strengthening racial harmony, promoting social change, ensuring equal education, and creating opportunities for personal empowerment. By portraying…

The COMET summer residential program at Purdue University (Indiana) offers gifted and talented youth in grades 4-6 a week of intensive study in a single content area. Courses stress specific problem-solving skills and development of a rich knowledge base. Extensive program evaluation by students, teachers, counselors, and parents was highly…

This report provides information about the program evaluation study of a national biodiversity education program for youth in the United States known as "Windows on the World" launched by the World Wildlife Fund. The curriculum development project is organized into four phases: (1) a biodiversity needs assessment; (2) the development of…

To learn the extent to which a revised elementary science program for grades 3 to 6 had been implemented in the 81 elementary schools of the Jefferson County (Colorado) School District, program developers adopted an assessment system based on the innovation configurations concept. The evolution of this system into an ongoing program for…