Argues that the remedial reading and study skills approach to retention courses for minority students is seriously flawed and often consists of no more than offering good advice. Accurately assessing student work in an atmosphere that validates cultural pluralism will best support student efforts and affirm their worth. (SLD)

This brief document offers ten principles of effective school design. They are: (1) Clear Focus and High Expectations for staff and students are defining features of an effective school; (2) A Rigorous Instructional Program provides equitable opportunities to learn and enables every student to master challenging content, skills, and learning…

This practicum project was designed to increase student ownership of learning through student-kept assignment calendars and portfolios. The subjects, 63 junior high school students at a private Christian school, were also involved in frequent, cooperative sessions in which they checked each other's work and offered suggestions, with reports to the…

Millions of students and adult learners who aspire to college are overwhelmed by the complexity of student aid. Uncertainty and confusion rob them of its significant benefits. Rather than promote access, student aid often creates a series of barriers--a gauntlet that the poorest students must run to get to college. Replacing complexity with a…

Highlighting the educational issues of girls and young women with disabilities, this book examines how they are exposed to discrimination based on gender and disability/special education status, and how they experience less successful vocational outcomes than males with disabilities and typical female peers upon leaving school. It also describes…

This action research project evaluated a program to improve student motivation, attendance rate, percent of homework returned, and student academic growth. The targeted population was a seventh-grade class in a middle school in north central Illinois. The problem of inadequate student motivation was documented by means of attendance rates,…

This study examined the need to better define and describe the concept of teacher leadership, especially from the point of view of the beginning teacher. It focused on teacher leadership as perceived by nine preservice and 3 relatively new inservice elementary teachers from a 5-year integrated Bachelor's/Master's teacher preparation program.…

The principles and practices of multicultural education became the heart of one middle school teacher education program. The five principles included fostering inter/intragroup harmony through learning communities, targeting social justice and affirmation of diversity, empowering students and teachers, seeing things from multiple perspectives, and…

Congenital heart disease is one of the most common pediatric chronic illnesses that can have an impact on the lives of affected children and their families. Despite the growing number of school-age children who live with congenital heart disease, few researchers have investigated the lives and well-being of these children and their families. The…

Various major publications such as the National Science Education Standards (National Research Council, 1996) and the collection of research results regarding the use of inquiry methodology in the teaching and learning of science edited by Minstrell & van Zee (2000) recommend that science should be taught in the same way that it is…

This book describes a study of 10 inner city schools in the United Kingdom which showed how the empathy and imagination of teachers and principals, as well as culturally relevant curricula and stimulating teaching, helped enable bilingual students to achieve. The first part of the book describes the main issues: what counts as achievement for…

This report is an outcome of a project designed to seek, screen, evaluate, describe, and disseminate highly effective approaches used by two-year colleges to serve students with significant disabilities. "Two-year colleges" included academic institutions, technical colleges, and vocational institutes. From a pool of 18 applicants, the…

This applied dissertation was designed to decrease confrontation among African American females at an alternative evening school for high school students who were at least 2 years behind grade level academically. The program involved developing a small group guidance curriculum, creating and videotaping role playing scenarios, arranging for…

An outdoor education course for six at-risk female students at an Ontario alternative high school demonstrates how a flexible, emergent course design based on the theories of critical pedagogy, feminist pedagogy, and adventure-based learning can affect student engagement and learning outcomes, and may be incompatible with the usual practice of…

The third in a series of federally supported modules for training paraprofessional school personnel who work with students with disabilities, this module focuses on training self-advocacy skills, facilitating friendships, and developing socialization skills for individuals with disabilities. Both a facilitator's edition and a student's edition are…