This curriculum guide, one of a series developed to assist those involved in implementing career education programs concerned with public service occupations, contains the basic instructional material recommended for the area of educational services preparation. The units described are: (1) human growth and development, (2) how people learn, (3)…

A method for improving the vocabulary development of low-income children was studied. The method involved the used of specially devised toy situations as a medium of teacher-student communication. Two representative Toy-Talk Contexts were developed. Twenty-four children attending kindergarten at an inner-city school were the subjects in the study,…

The objectives of this reading program, funded under Title I, Elementary Secondary Education Act, were as follows: (1) students (grades two through seven) shall show an average gain of one month's growth in total reading for each month of participation in the program; (2) third grade students shall score an average 80 percent efficiency on…

No amount of wishing can eliminate the pervasiveness of social-class dynamics in the lives of teachers and students. Educators and students need clarity and insight regarding the presence, interplay, and power of social class in their encounters with one another. This paper addresses these social class dynamics within educational institutions,…

The "Plain Talk about K.I.D.S. (Kids Inclined toward Difficulty in School)" summit on learning disorders was held in 1995 to bring together experts in the field of learning disorders to help disseminate the knowledge that will bring progress in the educational management of students who have difficulty in school. The first 10 chapters present…

This book focuses on ways teachers can modify their teaching in order to increase the academic achievement of students from the racial and ethnic groups that are experiencing massive failure in U.S. schools, and consequently in society. Modifying instruction to improve the academic achievement of African American and Latino students will benefit…

Describes the program at Carter G. Woodson elementary school, Baltimore (MD), an urban school serving many at-risk students which has adopted the curriculum and techniques of the Calvert School, a predominantly white, selective private school. There have been readily observable and measurable gains in academic achievement at the public school.…

Describes the success of the Escalante Math Program in East Los Angeles in teaching mathematics to poor minority students. Fundamental principles of the program include the following: (1) accountability; (2) hard work; (3) demand; (4) love; (5) parental involvement; (6) respect and values; (7) nutrition; and (8) drug use prevention. Discusses…

The "Thinking Actively in a Social Context" (TASC) project, currently underway with African-American high school pupils and teachers in KwaZulu/Natal schools (South Africa), stresses the systematic development of thinking and problem-solving skills. The program has been very successful with relatively high achieving students but requires…

This second part of a two-part essay shows how teachers, especially middle school teachers, can reduce academic risk. Two hypotheses are examined: (1) the more the classroom culture respects students, the more students respect the purposes, principles, and people in the classroom; and (2) assessment of learning must be fair and meaningful for all.…

Describes how a beginning teacher learned to teach an African American second grader to read. The narrative unfolds through a longitudinal study of the teacher's learning to teach diverse students. The story illustrates important influences upon her learning to teach and resisting norms that excluded attention to children's diverse needs. (SM)

The aim of the present study was to determine the effect of the Natural Teaching Strategies (NTS) parent training intervention on parent and child behaviour during free play. A pretest/posttest experimental design was used with families recruited from Head Start programs. Measures of observed behaviour were used to determine the use of contingent…

This article describes how Everyday Mathematics, a new program that is being used for kids at all levels across the US, is now a part of a curriculum change in the New York City school system. Instead of teaching standard ways to perform addition, subtraction, multiplication, and long division and then drilling students with worksheets, teachers…

This book presents six instructional models for teaching at-risk students. Each chapter is followed by a commentary section by an educational expert. Chapter 1 contrasts compensatory education as it is today with the kind of curriculum and instruction that would emerge based on the principles espoused in later chapters. Chapter 2 describes an…

Despite the critical failure of many urban schools to educate poor children and children of color, there are examples of schools and teachers who help students meet challenging academic standards in a supportive, culturally responsive, and empowering context. This paper represents one such success story of a teacher's efforts to nurture his…