Florida's current State Comprehensive Plan identifies seven goals of education that define the scope of the state's commitment to public education and set up priorities of effort. This report analyzes enrollments and expenditures for 1974-75 and those projected for 1980-81 and 1985-86 in terms of these seven goals. It shows that in 1974-75…

In this issue, the writers focus on the "basics" in English teaching, some offering suggestions on ways of altering present conditions, some commenting generally (in assessments, defenses, or attacks) cn the basics, and some presenting specific discussions of basics in teaching the various language arts components. A few of the articales and…

The suggestions in this paper offer some alternatives to the traditional perfunctory "remedial" programs that open the doors to hundreds of students and then fail to followup on the students' progress. General objectives of a basic skills program for open-admissions inner-city students should include the following: (1) To help each student…

The role of higher education is discussed in this essay with regard to the "new mission" of basic learning skills. It is suggested that teaching basic skills should be pressed back on the precollegiate educational units where it belongs, and that colleges must defend the idea that they are institutions for higher studies and advanced intellectual…

Examines the underlying causes of the failure of writing courses for skills-deficient students, especially as they relate to composition texts and teaching methods based on them, and suggests new approaches. (DD)

Teachers should not waste their time teaching grammar, but should instead help students develop fluence, maturity, and artistry of expression through work on the sentence. (DD)

Shows how the study of literature and the skills of writing and thinking can be mutually reinforcing activities. (DD)

Describes research on how female language characteristics affect the writing processes and written products of female basic writers. (SR)

Presents sentence-combining exercises that can help basic writing students to produce correct surface-structure transformations in their writing. (HTH)

Writing critical reviews forces students to practice the two important forms of discourse that are part of the basics that teachers have been asked to get back to: exposition and argumentation. (Author)

An example is given of the discovery method of instruction applied in a remedial college algebra course. (DT)

Details the problems involved in accurately evaluating students' skill levels and suggests a program of fundamental literacy rather than a "back to basics" movement. (KS)

This report calculates the financial costs incurred by Michigan businesses and institutions of higher education when students leave high school without learning the basic skills. Five different strategies are used for determining this cost, they are: direct expenditures for remedial education by Michigan institutions of higher education and…

Introductory courses in acting and directing should be combined. (CH)