In the 1900s, distance education attempted to mimic the traditional classroom lecture via the transmission of live or "canned" broadcasts, regardless of the technologies used: satellite, television, film, or radio. These kinds of media predisposed distance education (DE) to closely adhere to the lecture (sit and absorb) model, where…

During 2001, rural people from across South Carolina met to discuss how their schools are faring in the new environment of increased accountability and testing. This report identifies six foundations that are essential for building stronger rural schools. Eliminating poverty and improving the health and overall well-being of rural residents could…

This study investigated the lives of adolescents with and without disabilities in nine high schools in urban, suburban, and rural areas in Kansas, Washington, Oregon, and California. It gathered information on key contextual factors and realities that adolescents confront throughout the day. In this investigation, 53 ninth-grade high school…

This primer on the state role in adult education and literacy (AEL) looks at how well the states are performing their leadership functions, current commitment, and how to improve their leadership capacity and commitment. Section I is an introduction. Section II explains how the adult education and literacy system (AELS) functions as part of the…

This essay examines the ways in which nonprofit universities increasingly emulate businesses, focusing on two of the most direct forms of emulation: the creation of internal university markets at the University of Southern California through adoption of variants of resource center management (RCM) and the privatization of public higher education…

This report addresses the failure of U.S. systems of support for homeless families, the impact of this failure on the nature of poverty across the country, and common sense options for turning failure into success. Extensive histories of participation in U.S. institutions of support are not spread evenly across the homeless population. While about…

The use of hypermedia in education is supported by cognitive flexibility theory which indicates transfer of knowledge to real-world settings is improved when that material is learned in a case-based, associative network emphasizing complexity and links to related information. Hypermedia is further assumed to benefit education, because it resembles…

This report records and expands on presentations made by 30 speakers who addressed an April 27, 1992 fact finding meeting on racial tension on college campuses in Connecticut. Section 1 describes the Tristate Project in New England and offers background information on the state and its colleges. Section 2 summarizes the remarks of opening speakers…

This research brief recaps a study of California charter schools. After a discussion of the key distinctions among charter schools, the brief focuses on the following questions: (1) Who attends charter schools? (2) How does student achievement in charter schools compare with that in conventional public schools? (3) What oversight do chartering…

This report describes the methodology and initial results of an evaluation of the universal (school-wide) Positive Behavioral Intervention and Support (PBIS) initiative in Illinois, including (1) strategies for establishing research-based practices and data-based evaluation systems in implementation schools; (2) methodology and initial findings of…

This report recommends priorities for research into rural communities and rural social issues in Australia, based on an extensive literature review, surveys of policymaking agencies and researchers, and discussion at a national workshop in May 1999. Chapters 1-2 outline the study's background, purpose, and methodology; discuss issues in the…

This book explores the embodied narrative knowledge that educators hold and express in context and call forth in situations. It is about teachers and principals living and telling and reliving and retelling stories intuitively developed around metaphors borrowed from classical literature, music, drama, mythology, and children's literature to…

Education in and through agriculture is attracting the attention and interest of teachers in schools of all grades and of many people, both in the country and in the city. Only within recent years have agriculture and allied subjects come to be an important part of the courses of study in elementary and secondary schools and in normal schools…

Restructuring consequences in Australian education have largely been confined to administrative levels. However, change must occur at the classroom level, beginning with outcomes and processes. Five levels are critical to supporting classroom practice: student outcomes; learning; teaching; organizational structures; and leadership, resourcing, and…

Describes a pilot project of the Park/School Program which involved graduate students in environmental studies conducting field studies in ecology with 46 fifth graders. Provides an overview of the project's potential for effecting change inside and outside the classroom, and presents recommendations for future programs and research. (LZ)