Schools serving communities with high rates of poverty face the profound challenge of meeting the needs of students who are often exposed to significant family and environmental stressors and trauma. Classroom staff are vital members of school communities who often work closely with students with the highest needs, but they are typically not…

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are being recognized globally for their influential role in realizing the UN Millennium Development Goal of education for all in developing countries. NGOs mostly employ untrained para-educators for grassroots activities. The professional development of these teachers is critical for NGO effectiveness, yet…

Since there are large gaps between the culture, economy, and education of Native Americans and mainstream Americans, the recruitment and training of Native Americans as paraprofessionals in the schools appears to be a promising opportunity to deal with all three gaps simultaneously. Three model programs which are currently bridging these gaps with…

This paper describes a model providing a framework through which communities can work to meet the critical shortage of adequate quality child care facilities and services in rural as well as urban areas. This CETA program model, called the Fresh Start Approach, offers skills training and supportive services to economically disadvantaged women…

This paper describes the model for a program of compensatory education designed to intervene directly in the home so that the home situation might lead to better school and life performance. A section on "Rationale and Major Objectives" explains the program emphases: (1) the development of nonprofessionals as parent educators and as…

The Rural Aide Model is a proven, functional model in which an aide or para-professional is trained in the components of the Teaching Research Data Based Classroom Model and provides individual instruction, under the supervision of a certified teacher, to one or two children with handicapping conditions. Usually the instruction occurs within the…

This module, which is one in a series of 29 competency-based administrator education learning packages and related supportive materials focusing upon specific professional competencies of vocational administrators, deals with recruiting and providing inservice training for nondegreed teachers. The first section discusses the need to use nondegreed…

A demonstration program instituted the New Careers model into the Bethel school system in Eugene, Oreg., with three objectives: to create an entry system for economically disadvantaged youth into teacher preparation academic course work; to acquire academic credit for the teacher aide's on-the-job training within the university teacher education…