To spur English teachers to change their attitudes and methods in dealing with nonnative English speaking students, this autobiographical account by a Chicana woman describes how English teachers caused her to feel insecurity, frustration, and embarrassment about her use of language. Among the problems the author describes are her suffering at…

Research was conducted to improve applicant selection procedures in the Air Force Reserve Officers' Training Corps (AFROTC) scholarship program. The objectives were to document predictive relationships, if any, between student aptitude measures, academic major, institutional selectivity, and eventual completion of the scholarship program. The…

The Aides to Career Education (ACE) Program, a Los Angeles Vocational Amendments Part A project, employs instructional aides to help disadvantaged vocational education students develop positive attitudes toward education and employment, more cooperative behavior, pride in their course work, efficiency in completing assigned tasks, and improved…

The purpose of the study was to define factors associated with high (16% or more) and low (15% or less) rates of attrition of ethnic minority students in vocational education programs. Six functional areas of school operations were studied: teacher characteristics, teaching techniques, total school environment, supportive services, organization,…

The knowledge explosion, the growth of technology, and the development of new teaching methodologies seem to the author to have led to a sense of unrelatedness, insignificance, and a loss of personal identity. The implications of this position for language teachers are viewed in terms of communication and motivation. Weaknesses of the scientific,…

The steps which led to the establishment of the Open University in Great Britain and the intentions of its founders are first described, with particular attention paid to the needs it was intended and not intended to meet. Following this is an examination of the evidence to date of the University's success in reaching its target student…

The Work Opportunity Center (WOC) is a vocational facility in a non-school setting with programs designed to meet the special needs of disadvantaged, inner city youth. This experimental program originally served 200 junior high youth who attended a half-day program of vocational and related training at the WOC. Emphasis throughout the program was…

This report examines some of the many varieties of alternatives now available, their problems and pitfalls, and their hopes for the future. After defining alternative schools, the report discusses the rationale for having alternatives and then summarizes the range of alternatives available at both the elementary and secondary levels. Separate…

Compares and contrasts the structural components of minority and general summer retention programs at 20 predominantly white universities. Utilizes the results of a telephone survey. (FMW)

More employers have mobilized to support career academies. They say that in addition to improving student engagement in school, academies help to strengthen relationships among business leaders, educators, and civic leaders; prevent high risk students from dropping out; and expand their pipeline of qualified workers. Academic research has helped…

The undergraduate population at the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT), an open enrollment four-year commuter college, is highly vulnerable to attrition. Fifty-two percent of the students enrolled between July 1, 1991 and July 1, 1995 either did not graduate after 4 years or did not return to school. In response, the college has developed…

The mobile lifestyle and fragmented education of migrant secondary students creates a need for innovative solutions that will enable them to graduate from high school. This handbook was developed to assist Texas school district operations and state and interstate educators in the coordination and delivery of instructional and support services for…

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Telling Tales Out of Charter School: What Educators and Policymakers Can Learn from the Successes and Failures of Charters (Robert Rothman); (2) One Charter School's Formula…

This keynote address of the 1996 RETAIN Conference (Retention in Education for Today's American Indian Nations, University of Arizona) addresses factors affecting the retention of American Indian college students. Includes institutional strategies to meet the needs of American Indian students, student strategies to increase their chances for…

Discusses ways that media and technology facilitate learning. Considers cognitive, motivational, and social needs of at-risk students; underlying causes of school failure; ways technology might improve at-risk students' learning; how technology might facilitate school restructuring; and ways schools must be restructured to increase the effective…