A program designed to provide students with a fairly good command of English, including some knowledge of scientific and technical English, upon completing the five year middle school is discussed. The five year period is divided into three stages. In the first stage, first and second year students receive training in listening comprehension,…

This paper examines the latest elementary, middle school, and district level Maryland student achievement and teacher experience data to argue that schools today are segregated not only along student backgrounds, but also along teacher expertise. The very students who need school the most to break out of the intergenerational cycle of poverty and…

This paper presents the results of a two-year initiative to change the social arrangements and interactions of special education students and teachers assigned to a predominantly Mexican-American, low-income seventh grade campus of 520 students. The project investigated how to improve the learning environments of students at risk of being placed…

This study investigated whether a Professional Development Practicum (PDP) at Pennsylvania's Millersville University had an impact on the educational values of PDP student teachers, especially those related to middle level school reform. Researchers designed a 2-semester study to assess changes in educational values of student teachers placed in…

This study presents the case of a preservice science student teacher who wanted to make the science classroom an equitable place of learning. The paper focuses on her cross-cultural student teaching experience in an urban middle school. Data were gathered from in-depth interviews conducted throughout her student teaching experience, a journal in…

This study presents the case of a preservice science student teacher with a desire to make science education more accessible to all students. The paper highlights her cross-cultural student teaching experience in an urban middle school with a predominantly Hispanic-American population. Data were gathered from interviews conducted throughout her…

This paper describes a student teacher's experience in a school-university partnership and investigates the converging influences of the school and the university on the student teacher. The study examined the experience of a student teacher in the Puget Sound Professional Development Center Middle School Preservice Teacher Education Program, a…

This case study provides a practical example of collaborative action research at work in a classroom setting, and illustrates how collaborative action research can be used to help teachers answer questions about their own practice and professional development. Following a review of the available research and historical foundations for…

An experimental Interactive Video Disc (IVD) assessment program, funded partially by the National Science Foundation, was developed to assess science teachers' knowledge of safe management of lab facilities and activities. The IVD program contains two phases: (1) panoramic view of the lab room, including safety equipment and storage of chemicals;…

A study examined linguistic minority parents' views on bilingual education, motivated by recurrent controversy surrounding public school provision of bilingual education for language minority students. Multiple-choice questionnaires in English and Spanish were answered by 299 Latino parents whose children were enrolled in bilingual education…

Scholars and proponents of computer-supported learning advocate the use of collaborative learning as an important component of Internet courses. Advocates claim that computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) is an instructional strategy that can help instructors avoid the pitfalls of Internet correspondence courses that rely on information…

Materials used in conducting a conference workshop on language immersion are presented, including an introductory overview, a guide for observing and analyzing immersion instruction, findings resulting from analysis of the program in question, and the text of a related presentation made at the same conference. The introductory section describes…

The Library Power program is a school improvement initiative of the DeWitt-Wallace Reader's Digest Fund that began in 1988, designed to promote the full integration of the school library media program into the school curriculum in public elementary and junior high/middle schools. With a total investment exceeding $45 million, Library Power is the…

This is a record of the proceedings of the 30th annual conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia (MERGA). The theme of the conference is "Mathematics: Essential research, essential practice." The theme draws attention to the importance of developing and maintaining links between research and practice and…