A staff development program in two western states helps professionals in rural school systems provide comprehensive transition services to students with disabilities. The program was designed to be relevant to rural constituents and to overcome the lack of understanding of local needs by university personnel. A vision statement relating to desired…

This study documents the struggles and successes of three Mexican American teachers over a 40-year period in the Alice Independent School District, Texas. In order to focus on the construction of the subjects' identity as Mexican American teachers, the interviews were transcribed and categorized into themes: parental influence, school experiences,…

This Texas report focuses on the partnerships the Texas Council is creating with people, businesses, and organizations in the community to work toward greater access and accommodations for people with disabilities throughout local communities. Individual partnerships are described that represent cooperation with health and human services agencies,…

This kit of materials, designed for trainers of adult literacy teachers, attempts to capture the experience of five adult literacy workers from Mozambique on a study tour of Nicaragua and Brazil, and to introduce the user to the concept, methodology, and tools of "popular literacy." The kit both reports an experience and offers a set of…

This handbook, designed for British adult educators, contains examples of innovative approaches to the continuing education of adults with learning difficulties. It contains 10 sections: (1) using this handbook; (2) self-advocacy and citizen advocacy; (3) learning choices; (4) ways and means of learning; (5) learning for a purpose; (6)…

A comprehensive national plan is needed to reverse the declining enrollment and employment of blacks in higher education. Over the last decade, government policies such as cuts in financial aid and the erosion of Head Start, child care, and other programs that benefit the poor have contributed to the negatives trends in minority enrollment. In…

This article reports on a school-based research project into teaching composing at GCSE, setting this alongside a review of the literature. It suggests that research into cognition in composing in school students and teaching composing within a school context may be synthesised by understanding composing as problem solving. Composing is described…

Decentralized decision-making is an important characteristic of effective schools. Effective decentralization requires that teachers, parents, students, and the community be involved, despite the various problems they face. The creation of school improvement councils is one step towards implementing the massive structural change needed to improve…

This document is comprised of the 1999 issues (issues 2 and 3 are combined) of a newsletter of the Harvard Family Research Project, designed to share new ideas and experiences in evaluating systems reform and comprehensive child and family services. The first issue focuses on the evaluation of youth programs and includes the following articles:…

A study examined experiential education programs in terms of how they developed participants' personal agency, sense of belonging, and levels of competence. Personal agency empowers students to become change agents in their lives and communities; sense of belonging enables participants to see themselves as members of a community with rights and…

The resource materials in this package are designed for use by English language and job training instructors attempting to make their instruction more urgently and comprehensively employment-focused. They are arranged in topical sections, each with an introduction and brief description of how they may be used. Sections address these topics:…

Education is at the heart of the struggle of Canada's Aboriginal peoples to regain control over their lives as communities and nations. Based on hearings and research generated by the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP), this collection of articles documents recent progress in transforming Aboriginal education to support…

This working paper is intended to enrich an initial description of alternative businesses and A-Way Express Couriers, in particular. (A-Way, a 12-year-old community organization, is a psychiatric survivor-run alternative business.) The paper begins with a brief commentary on the psychiatric survivor movement and research on it. The paper traces…

The purpose of this book is to help guide the inquiry of people who want to improve high schools. It presents 11 general issues, assertions, or principles needed to create a good high school. The issues and their accompanying assertions come from national curriculum standards developed by research centers; authoritative educational research;…

Health, education, and human service agencies are beginning to think strategically and systematically about how to provide family members with opportunities for meaningful involvement as partners. Noting that collaboration between families and professionals in program and policy settings requires all parties to acquire new skills, this guide for…