The series "Self-instructional Notes on Social Participation" is a six volume series intended as teaching aids for adult educators. The theoretical, methodological, informative and practical elements of this series will assist professionals in their work and help them achieve greater success. The specific purpose of each notebook is…

The partial immersion program at Key Elementary School (Arlington, Virginia), where half the day is taught in English and half in Spanish, continued to be successful in its eighth year. Reasons for success include: dedication and in-depth understanding of immersion philosophy among principal, coordinator, teachers, and staff; innovations in both…

A series of partial studies aimed at understanding how much progress students can make in 1 year of second language study are described. The first concerns Swedish university students in their first year studying Spanish as a third language in higher education. Students were tested and interviewed for their perceptions of their language ability…

An instructional unit for Spanish second language instruction, based on an original story "El Ano Neuvo en Costa Rica" (New Year's in Costa Rica) written by Maritza Sloan, is presented. An introductory section outlines briefly the process of planning a thematic unit and its outcomes, and suggests categories of activities to support…

An ethnographic study examined the role of language, discrimination, and aspirations in the school success of Latino students in a small rural town. The town, located about 1,000 miles from Mexico and about 200 miles from any sizeable Latino community, contains about 200 Latinos. Almost all are Mexicans or Mexican Americans and have come to work…

This final report describes activities and accomplishments of a project which developed, implemented, and evaluated the effectiveness of a microcomputer/videodisc math instructional management system for grades K-4. The system was designed to operate on an APPLE II microcomputer, videodisc player, and input-output devices. It included three…

The practicum reported here addressed the difficulty some newly-immigrated Spanish-speaking, limited-English-proficient high school students experience in adjusting to a new culture, putting them at risk of dropping out of school. A program was designed for this population in a suburban high school with a substantial and increasing immigrant…

The Lollipop Test (La Prueba Lollipop) is a bilingual preschool readiness test (in both English and Spanish) that has been the subject of a number of studies to assess validity and detect cultural bias. Such studies have not dealt with item analysis as a way to measure cultural fairness. The Rasch model was used in a study of the Lollipop test…

This study investigated the attitudes of 15 urban high school students, enrolled in several different levels of Spanish second language instruction, concerning language study and instruction. Results suggest that students see language instruction as primarily grammar-oriented, but would prefer more oral practice and application. They see…

An at-risk profile instrument was developed for identification and service delivery for high risk students to identify students in a timely manner so that intervention could occur on a proactive, rather than reactive, basis; and to assist school district personnel to implement, monitor, and modify programmatic and staffing patterns to best meet…

The appropriateness of the Angoff method (W. H. Angoff, 1971) for setting standards on tests was studied. Evaluators (judges) from California school districts and teacher training institutions reviewed 15 NTE (National Teacher Examinations) Program Specialty Area Tests published by the Educational Testing Service for their appropriateness in…

A study investigated the emerging journal-writing skills of 16 monolingual Spanish-speaking Mexican Americans and 10 monolingual English-speaking first-graders in San Diego County, California, in a whole-language, two-way bilingual classroom. The research looked for developmental stages in writing in the primary language, similarities or…

The handbook describes language examinations offered and examination systems administered by members of the Association of Language Testers in Europe (ALTE). An introductory section describes the rationale behind the founding of the organization, lists its 22 current members, and states its aims and objectives. Subsequent sections detail the…

This monograph describes a personnel preparation program that prepared 32 Colorado special education graduates to meet the needs of students who are learning English as a second language and are visually impaired. Graduates took a course that was specially designed to expose students to relevant literature on federal mandates for the education of…

This report focuses on linguistically and culturally diverse students who enter the formal education process from homes and communities in which English is not the primary language. These students experience unrealized academic success. Data are presented on Hispanic students as an example, showing a 40% non-graduation rate, a 35% grade retention…