The minimum competency goal that now dominates college basic skills instruction is not adequate to prepare the student for success in and beyond college. More can be accomplished within basic skills courses than the mere acquisition of literal information from a reading selection. The use of thematic unity can impose meaningful organization on the…

Teachers are faced with the problem of needing to do a better job of teaching the basics and the astrobasics (those skills needed to understand and respond to the complex bureaucratic demands of the space age, especially reading and filling in such forms as those required for class registration, student loans, and income tax preparation). At least…

An overview of the Essential Skills Program at the National Institute of Education is presented in this paper. The paper is divided into three parts. In outline form, the first part of the paper describes the history of the program since its formation in December 1973. Also included in the first part is a short discussion of a number of the major…

The relationships that exist among the skills of reading, writing, speaking, and listening suggest a need for greater attention to oral communication processes in the formal instructional program. The extent of these relationships is such that four national associations drafted a joint paper stating that oral language competency is the basis for…

Austin's 5-year Title VII project was intended to improve the achievement of elementary students in the following areas: oral language proficiency, knowledge of basic concepts, reading ability in Spanish, and proficiency in English reading and math. Results indicated that program participants gained in knowledge of basic concepts at the…

The effect of a health unit studying the heart on the reading comprehension and vocabulary skills of lower socioeconomic, sixth-grade elementary school pupils was examined in this study. Sixty-four pupils in a midwest elementary school were divided into two heterogeneous classes. One class received instruction on the heart in a program involving…

In order to understand better the elemental processes involved in beginning reading (specifically, how cognitive skills are acquired and whether a relationship exists among basic skills), Robert Calfee and colleagues conducted a first-grade reading diary study. Forty target children in 1973-1974 and 50 children in 1974-1975 were observed as they…

This paper argues that the immediate reason for the decline in literacy in our colleges is the shift from an emphasis on the traditional discipline required in construction to an emphasis on spontaneity in writing. Of the four phases of the creative process (preparation, incubation, illumination, and verification), only verification should be…

This paper describes the development of a program to teach reading and learning skills at the Kansas City, Kansas Community College, which was designed to decrease academic failure in vocational education programs. Primary goals of the program were to develop a screening test to identify students in need of assistance, before academic problems…

The Survival Skills Center described in this report operates at Columbia College, CA, to provide individualized instruction in basic reading, writing, and math skills using a series of modules which focus on problems commonly encountered in everyday life. After discussing the need for such instruction among nontraditional students, the paper…

The Communication Experience Approach (CEA), a modification of the Language Experience Approach to teaching reading, involves the use of group activities designed to help functionally illiterate persons learn basic communication skills. This paper first discusses six distinct processes in the CEA: setting a specific purpose for communicating,…

The high school minimal competency examination described in this document is part one of a three-part program that requires that all students satisfactorily complete tests in reading, language arts, and mathematics prior to receiving a high school diploma. The document outlines the test development and assessment program and describes the plan for…

The Cognitive Project at Passaic County College (New Jersey) was designed to develop a curriculum that would give educationally underprepared, nontraditional students an opportunity to actively experience ways of acquiring, solidifying, and using knowledge while acquiring the basic skills necessary for college work. Student explorations were…

This transcript of a National Radio Broadcast records a discussion of various issues regarding minimum competence in schools. Presenting and analyzing these issues are a number of noted individuals in education (Kenneth Clark, Graham Down, Albert Shanker), critics, school administrators, writers and a psychologist. Areas addressed include:…

Confluent education holds that any learning involves the affective as well as the cognitive domain. Affective components are present in the student, in the subject matter, and in the relationship between the two. Affect and cognition can be brought into meaningful relationship or "confluence" in classroom lessons which teach reading and writing.…