Jean Kirshner holds a Ph.D. in Education and Human Resource Development from Colorado State University and specializes in literacy and teacher education. Jean started her career as the Early Childhood Director at Saint Ignatius Grammar School, Chicago in 1988. After two years she joined the Child Opportunity Program in Denver as a Head Start…

This article features an interview of Duncan Campbell. He was raised in an impoverished urban environment and went on to become a lawyer and successful Portland, Oregon, businessman. He founded Friends of the Children, a faith-based program, to provide permanent paid mentors for the most disadvantaged children in a community. Unlike more casual…

In the Programed Tutorial Reading Project in the Indianapolis School District, over 1,200 first and second graders are tutored in reading by paraprofessionals for 15 minutes a day as a supplement to classroom teaching. All of the children are from schools that have a high enrollment of disadvantaged children, and include approximately 75 percent…

The Hartford Public School District has set up and is maintaining three Intensive Reading Centers, each of which provides a 10-weeks reading program for first graders. The purpose of the program is to improve the reading achievement of disadvantaged children. Children in groups of 10 or 11 move from teacher to teacher at 50-minute intervals. They…

During the 1969-70 school year, the Early School Admissions Program (ESAP) for 4-year-old disadvantaged pupils was offered in 22 Baltimore City Public Schools. Each center had both a morning and an afternoon session enrolling different children. The overall goal of the ESAP was to improve the disadvantaged pupil's ability to learn, to provide…

A description is given of the total instructional program for the primary grades, including a brief historical and philosophical perspective of the Follow-Though Program developed by the Hartford Board of Education. The role of the teacher and paraprofessional and the training program available to them is described. (Author/DB)

The Porter Elementary School in Syracuse, New York introduced individually prescribed instruction (IPI) for its kindergarten through 6th grade pupils, most of whom came from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Student individual differences relating to social background physical and personality development, intellectual capacity, and school…