Strong faculty relationships can benefit developmental programs by increasing referrals, creating a climate of support for developmental activities, and increasing resources available to programs; therefore, finding, keeping, and using faculty friends represent essential needs for such programs. Faculty friends may be generated in a number of ways…

Basic skills lists, prepared by departments of education from five states within the United States, are examined in order to identify and define universal basic skills needed by teachers to instruct their pupils more effectively. Examination of these lists reveals that, although no single common definition of basic skills exists among the lists,…

This criticism of writing competency tests questions both the efficacy of a test developed by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and the reliance of individual states on the products of private testmakers. The paper suggests that a hidden curriculum is being developed by independent and semi-independent organizations that…

Using a single theme for a course in basic writing can be an effective and enjoyable way of teaching and learning. One college that developed such a program saw as the criteria for the course: learning grammar, writing at least eight in-class paragraphs of 300 words each in the quarter, attending the college's writing center and working with a…

This paper argues that the "back to basics" movement is regressive and that regression is the characteristic mode of fear-ridden personalities. It is argued that many people in American society today have lost their ability to laugh and do not have the sense of humor which is crucial to a healthy mental state. Such topics as necrophilia, mental…

The Parallel Alternate Curriculum (PAC), a model providng regular content courses, in regular classes, to secondary students with learning problems, combines basic skill instruction with alternative teaching strategies. PAC, a mainstreaming implementation program, is designed to provide inservice training emphasizing the process of how students…

While concerns over literacy are common in contemporary times, similar concerns have been raised in other historical periods. Despite earlier predictions of American mastery of English, the Harvard Reports of the 1890s reflected anxiety over literacy among freshman college students from even "the best families in point of culture and…

A study was conducted to investigate the reading comprehension and educationally related characteristics and relationships that describe the Navy's recruit population. The variable of primary interest was the recruit's reading comprehension grade level score; other variables were years of education, aptitude score, high school graduation status,…

A study was conducted to investigate the reading comprehension and educationally related characteristics and relationships that describe the Navy's recruit population. The variable of primary interest was the recruit's reading comprehension grade level score; other variables were years of education, aptitude score, high school graduation status,…

A functional approach to the assessment of learning disabilities (LD) is proposed in the light of confusing and ambiguous guidelines for identifying students with LD. Problems in the current evaluation procedures include the concept that ability and achievement are separate dimensions of intellectual functioning and the potential for biased…

Not all of America's public schools have benefited from recent efforts to improve education, because the problems of schools and of their communities are deep and complex. By 2000, when one of every three pupils in the public schools will be nonwhite, America's major cities could become an educational Third World. To avoid a deepening crisis,…

Alternative group judgment approaches to setting minimum competency standards were compared. Replication of results was possible for eight different tests (reading and mathematics, across four grade levels). The Kansas Competency Based Tests in reading and mathematics were administered statewide to students in grades two, four, six, and eight.…

The learning lab at Hawaii Community College (HCC) has, for the past year and a half, utilized the PLATO (Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations) computer-assisted instructional program. PLATO, which is used by students whose preferred learning mode falls into the listening, visual, or reading categories, serves to broaden the learning…

Current conceptualizations of the construct of "communication competence" are examined in this paper and are found to be problematic. The paper argues that "communication competence" must be distinguished from "communication performance" and sees neither as a reliable predictor of the other. The paper suggests that both research and pedagogy must…

This paper discusses the problems and achievements of computer assisted instruction (CAI) projects at University College, University of Cincinnati. The most intensive use of CAI on campus, the CAI Lab, is part of the Developmental Education Center's effort to serve students who lack mastery of basic college-level skills in mathematics and English.…