The author analyzes research methodologies used in determining historical literacy rates. Three basic systems used are (1) book ownership, (2) school growth and attendance, and (3) document signatures. He finds the last of these methods to be more reliable than the others, though it says little about literacy quality. (CH)

After some attention to the what and why of open learning in general, aspects of learning situations in open learning systems in Melbourne and Manchester are raised for discussion. These aspects include mode of attendance, mode of learning, pace of learning, interaction with others, resources for learning, and content of learning. (CT)

The School-Based Mental Health Program's goals are to identify at-risk children, reduce ineffective functioning of at-risk children, provide social service interventions, increase effective parenting skills, help families access community resources, and support mental health education. The program was designed to develop a comprehensive,…

Policymakers, educators, and researchers recognize the importance of community colleges as open door institutions that provide a wide range of students with access to college. At the same time, competing demands for the state funds that would support community colleges have resulted in reduced public allocations and higher student tuition fees.…

Describes how the Minneapolis Public Schools, Minnesota, identified system-wide standards and practices to help all students achieve the goal of 95 percent attendance, an especially difficult goal for highly mobile students. The Kids Mobility Study in Minneapolis documents the connection between residential mobility and student achievement and…

The aim of this study was to identify and re-present the experiences and views of a sample of children who have been 'missing' from education, and those of their parents/carers. Access to this hard to reach population has been possible as a result of an innovative interventionist tracking system, responding to pupil mobility, developed by the…

A major problem for large-enrollment, introductory college courses in natural resources and life sciences is poor attendance. To ameliorate this problem, we designed a hybrid course (part online, part face-to-face) to incorporate the advantages of online learning while retaining benefits of face-to-face instruction. We taught a hybrid introductory…

In 2004, Chapin Hall researchers conducted a study to learn why youth ran way from substitute care (Courtney, et al., 2005). As part of the study, qualitative interviews were conducted with 46 youth who had run away from care and 16 professionals and foster parents who worked with these youth. Although the youth were not prompted with specific…

This is the 11th annual report on conditions affecting the Racine Unified School District (RUSD). Analysis continues to focus on the long-term historical trends in RUSD, comparing RUSD to nine peer school districts and the State of Wisconsin. RUSD peer districts are Wisconsin's largest (Milwaukee Public Schools are not included) and their…

This paper investigates the determinants and malleability of noncognitive skills. Using data on boys from the National Education Longitudinal Survey, I focus on youth behavior in the classroom as a measure of noncognitive skills. I find that student behavior during adolescence is persistent. The variation in behavior can be attributed to…

Despite nationwide decreases in school crime and violence, a relatively high and increasing number of students report feeling unsafe at school. In response, some school officials are implementing school-police partnerships, especially in urban areas, as an effort to deter criminal activity and violence in schools. This article examines the initial…

Wisconsin's Learnfare program requires 13- to 19-year-old recipients of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) to maintain good school attendance or risk losing a portion of their families' grants. The program offers those with attendance problems the opportunity to work with case managers to identify causes of their poor attendance, as…

This is the second of three interim reports from the National Evaluation of Adult Education Programs. The first interim report, completed in March 1992, describes the adult education service delivery system. This report describes the clients who entered adult education programs during the evaluation's 12-month intake period beginning April 1991.…

This report evaluates the 1984 Search for Elevation, Education & Knowledge (SEEK) prefreshman summer program at Baruch College, City University of New York (CUNY), and describes its curriculum, staffing, recruitment of students, and objectives. Ninety-four students were enrolled: 73.4% were 18 or 19 years old; 73.0% were women; 90.4% were…

Using school records and attitudinal surveys, researchers evaluated two daily scheduling arrangements among ninth grade students taking level 4 and 5 courses at Central High School of Commerce in Toronto (Ontario). Some students were on group or block timetables, moving through each day's schedule in groups, while most students were on…