Summarizes research on middle level schools and students that contributes to ongoing debates concerning grade span, school size, grouping of students, departmentalization, curriculum, instruction, advisory groups, interdisciplinary teaming, school-transition activities, extra-help programs, and student evaluation practices in the middle grades.…

To assist in local school improvement, Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NWREL) has developed an approach in which teams of local educational leaders are made aware of the results of effective schooling research and are trained in the processes of change and improvement. Research reviews have shown specific elements of schooling at the…

It is possible for at-risk students to perform at demanding academic levels, and their achievement can be improved dramatically in a relatively short time. Effective ways to teach at-risk children have already been identified; no new research is needed. This report covers the following specific issues related to educating high-risk students. It…

This symposium report probes the barriers within special education that slow research utilization and examines positive influences on attitudes toward conducting research in practical settings. The first section presents five categories of barriers to technology implementation, outlined by Joel Mittler. Barrier categories include equipment,…

This paper identifies two broad types of "critical" ethnographic research. One type attempts to empower social actors by providing emic-oriented accounts which tend to emphasize the integrity of their constructs, thus laying the groundwork for a redistribution of social power. The other type attempts to combine analysis of phenomenal, micro-level…

Component-building research on practical issues of instructional design can make a substantial contribution to research-based school improvement. Component-building research consists of rigorous within-school experiments that test various components of instruction for effects on student achievement. Research would address practical issues that…

The Institute of Family Studies has completed its fifth year of operation; its future development depends on a clear statement of government support backed by sufficient staff and financial resources. This report focuses on current operating difficulties, structure, and achievements and activities of the Institute during the 1984-85 fiscal year.…

The mission of the Mid-continental Regional Education Laboratory (McREL) is to improve practice and increase academic performance in the schools of the seven-state mountain-plains region. McREL's principal approach to the dissemination and utilization of the effective schools research has been training teachers to use research. Based on the…

Interactive research in the area of staff development at the building site level has been conducted recently by the Research and Development Center of the University of Texas, Austin. In this research study staff developers, principals, and resource teachers are given training, research information, and implementation strategies to improve…

The Action Oriented, Reflection Oriented (AORO) observation instrument was designed to help teachers determine their students' cognitive preferences. The assumption underlying the instrument was that learning is enhanced when teaching strategies and materials take into account the student's natural tendency toward action or reflection. AORO…

This booklet contains 29 articles about literacy that originally appeared in newspapers across Canada during September 1987. Many are based on the extensive findings of a national literacy survey of 2,398 Canadian adults commissioned by Southam Inc. The survey provided the first real statistics about the state of literacy in the country;…

Trends over the past 25 years in research on evaluation of school administrative leadership are analyzed in this summary report. Administrator evaluation became a concern as the principal's influence on the performance and attitudes of faculty and staff was realized. Research on organizational psychology demonstrated the relationship between…

For this overview of the extent and feasibility of practitioner involvement in professional improvement, practitioners are defined as school-based professionals--teachers, aides, resource specialists, and administrators. Current thought on the need for these individuals to play major roles as decision makers in developing inservice programs is…

A Teacher Corps project intended to develop and implement a program of individualized instruction at a local middle school is described. The program is based on the assumption that each student is, in some way, a gifted student. The project adapts educational research in the area of gifted student instruction to a middle-school teacher-student…

This outreach project is based on the validated Developmental Therapy-Developmental Teaching model originally designed for young children with severe emotional/behavioral problems and their families. It is an approach that emphasizes the teaching skills that foster a child's social-emotional-behavioral competence. The model has proven effective in…