(1983). Cumulative Effects of Federal Education Policies on Schools and Districts. To determine how federal assistance and regulation affect the programs and operation of the educational system at the school and district level, this study concentrates on the cumulative effects of a number of categorical programs and related civil rights mandates. The focus of the 8-state study was on 20 school districts, from which 56 elementary and 25 secondary schools were selected. Onsite interviews with approximately 900 school and district respondents formed the primary data source, supplemented by information from documents and telephone interviews. Areas examined were target students' access to services that are considered appropriate; organizational and administrative features of schools and school districts; and local decision-making. General conclusions reached were that federal and state policies for special populations have substantially improved and expanded services for the intended target students; these policies have increased the structural complexity of schools… [PDF]
(1983). Native Language Reading Approach Program, 1982-1983. O.E.E. Final Evaluation Report. The Native Language Reading Approach Program in New York City was designed as an exemplary approach to on-site training of classroom teachers and their assistants in how to help students transfer reading skills from their native language to English. Program components included support services, teacher training, material/curriculum development, and parental involvement activities. In 1981-82, 43 teachers and 6 professional and paraprofessional specialists and 1314 students (Haitian, Greek, Italian, and Hispanic) in grades K-6 participated in the program. Evaluation showed that the main difficulties encountered in the first two years of the program were, in this the third and final year, resolved. Individualized services were provided to the different sites, and an integrated, overall approach was developed. Excellent rapport was achieved within the program itself and between the program staff and personnel at the sites. Program resource specialists developed expertise and two… [PDF]
(1982). British Columbia Science Assessment 1982. General Report. During the spring of 1982, over 80,000 students and nearly 2,000 teachers in British Columbia participated in the 1982 Science Assessment, contributing toward understanding of the status and progress of science education in the elementary and secondary schools of the province. The assessment was the second in science, the first occurring in 1978. This general report is divided into eight sections. Following an introduction (chapter 1), the development, piloting, and selection of items for the final achievement and attitude/opinion measures used in the assessment are discussed in chapter 2. Chapters 3-5 contain interpretations of the grade 4, grade 8, and grade 10-12 results, focusing on: (1) student characteristics; (2) achievement in science processes, knowledge (recall and understanding), and higher level thinking; (3) overall achievement results; (4) comparisons with other grade levels and 1978 survey; (5) achievement of specific sub-groups (including sex and language… [PDF]
(1984). America = Las Americas. Canada, United States, Mexico. Written for teachers to use with migrant children in elementary grades and to highlight the many Americas, three magazines provide historical and cultural background information on Canada, the United States, and Mexico and feature biographies of Black and Hispanic leaders. Each edition has a table of contents indicating the language–Spanish and/or English–in which topics are written. Individual issues focus on one American country and provide an encyclopedia-style overview of the country's history, geography, economy, and culture. Topics in the edition featuring Canada are the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Samuel de Champlain, and Sir Frederick Grant Banting and his discovery of insulin. The United States edition features biographies of Juan Ponce de Leon, George Washington, Frederick Douglass, Benjamin Banneker, Chief Joseph, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Walt Whitman. The issue devoted to Mexico provides biographies of Benito Juarez, Jose Maria Morelos, Jose Clemente Orozco, Diego…
(1977). Revision, Development and Implementation of a Bilingual Evaluation Management System, Volume IV. The purpose of this practicum was to develop a bilingual management system to enable bilingual teachers to monitor individual students' performance in the bilingual program. This required: (1) revising the kindergarten thru sixth grade student performance objectives; (2) developing kindergarten thru sixth grade criterion-referenced tests and mastery tests in English, Spanish and/or Portuguese for language arts-reading, mathematics, second language acquisition and multicultural social studies; and (3) developing student answer sheets and individual and class profiles. The present volume contains appendices 15 through 27: reading, math, and second language mastery tests for English, Spanish and Portuguese, answer sheets for the criterion-referenced tests and mastery tests provided, and printout sheets for the criterion reference tests and mastery tests. (Author/CLK)… [PDF]
(1982). Confronting Racial Isolation in Miami. This report presents the findings of research and public hearings on the development of racial isolation in Miami, Florida. Maintaining that Miami's black community is isolated from the city as a whole, and that the sense of black isolation and frustration precipitated the civil disturbances in Miami in May of 1980, the report examines the causes of black alienation and the role of public and private leadership in correcting the situation. Identified as a major influence in the development of racial alienation is the urban renewal program which pushed large numbers of blacks out of their traditional neighborhoods and into isolated and severely deteriorated areas. Other manifestations of black isolation include high unemployment and a lack of access to job training and advancement, adequate housing, the justice system, and equal educational opportunities among the city's black and minority population. It is concluded that solving Miami's problems requires a coordinated effort of… [PDF]
(1977). Multicultural Education: The Interdisciplinary Approach. A Summary of Conference Proceedings. April 1-3, 1976, San Diego; April 29-May 1, 1976, Oakland. The document summarizes proceedings from two conferences which addressed multicultural realities in American life. Intended as a means of expanding multicultural understandings of elementary and secondary teachers, the conferences encouraged exchange of ideas between parents, community members, curriculum specialists, administrators, educators, and policy planners. The narrative presentation is organized into four sections. Section I challenges widespread assumptions about ethnic studies, including the conceptualization that it refers only to non-white groups and should only be included in the curriculum of students who are members of that group. Section II stresses the need for conscious decisions about content and process in multicultural education to avoid fragmented programs which do little more than glorify ethnic heroes. Section III presents interdisciplinary suggestions for improvement of teacher education with a multicultural emphasis, evaluation of curriculum, and… [PDF]
(1969). Malabar Reading Program for Mexican-American Children, Los Angeles, California. Elementary Program in Compensatory Education, 2. This program attempted to raise the reading levels of Mexican-American children (prekindergarten through grade three) through individualized instruction, self-instruction, curriculum change, parent participation, and cultural activities. It was assumed that children would become capable of self-regulating learning behavior only when they had learned to organize their cognitive field; thus, the search for structure was to proceed in the development of both reading and oral language skills. The five major aspects of the instruction are presented in tabular format. Tables include summaries of activities related to writing, phonics, word discrimination, comprehension, and self-regulatory, self-instructing behavior and anticipated concomitant changes in self-concept for each level. Self-teaching materials are described. The Stanford Reading Test was the principle measure of achievement. Tables giving analyses of data are included. (KG)… [PDF]
(1971). H-200 Plus Five. Project H-200 is a series of English-as-a-second-language (ESL) lessons for the primary grades. To supplement direct language instruction by the Project H-200 classroom teacher, two mechanical aids have been devised. These units are designed to reinforce the language patterns that the children learn in the daily lesson. One type projects a filmstrip which is advanced automatically and inaudibly by the accompanying recording. Stories interesting to small children have been adapted for this machine. Songs and language drills accompany each story. Each story has a Spanish and an English version. The other unit, which plays back a six-second recording on individual, illustrated cards, permits endless repetitions of each recorded utterance but does not guarantee a fixed sequence of illustrations and sounds. Additional activities, songs, and games have also been created. Testing has been modified into a telephone-circuit arrangement with the examiner and tape recorder, the subject, and a… [PDF]
(1976). Parent Education and the Educationally Disadvantaged Child. This paper describes a strategy for the development of Parent-Child Development Centers (PCDCs) directly involving parents in preschool programs for children up to three years of age. The five-part strategy has been implemented through: (1) a proposal phase, for three comprehensive-program centers for low-income families and (2) a four-year model-development, implementation and evaluation phase, and is now in (3) a replication phase for programs in new sites. Remaining phases will provide for (4) external evaluation of programs and (5) overall assessment of results, prior to wider dissemination. The three original PCDCs are described. Birmingham and New Orleans programs, described briefly, are center-based, with children from 2-3 months to three years of age. The Houston PCDC is described in detail. Involving urban Mexican-American families, the two-year program begins at the age of one year with home-based mother and family involvement. The second year, for two-year-olds, is… [PDF]
(1992). Descubriendo La Lectura: An Application of Reading Recovery in Spanish. Education and Urban Society, v24 n2 p212-26 Feb. Research suggests that use of a child's native language in initial literacy instruction is beneficial. The Descubriendo la Lectura (DLL) Spanish-language application of the English Reading Recovery Program is described as implemented for one Spanish-speaking first grade boy. The DLL program capitalizes on strengths children demonstrate in reading. (SLD)…
(1992). Multicultural Education: A Canadian Perspective. This paper presents a discussion of multicultural policies in Canada, implications for teachers and schools, multicultural resources, and heritage language education. A case study of an elementary school in North York, a borough of metropolitan Toronto (Ontario, Canada), illustrates the positive effects that can accrue when a multicultural approach to teaching is adapted. The practice of heritage language instruction in Canada is addressed and focuses on the problems and attempted solutions in Ontario where heritage language teaching is integrated into the regular curriculum. This means that core curriculum subjects will be taught in the students' native language in order to best ensure success of immigrant students later in the educational system, and that such language instruction is available not only to specific ethnic groups but to all children who wish to take avantage of extra language instruction. In order to prepare qualified teachers competent in an official language… [PDF]
(1981). The Future of Education: Policy Issues and Challenges. Twenty articles, with an introduction, discuss future educational policies and problems in light of contemporary demographic, economic, political, cultural, technological, and social-psychological changes. The articles are grouped into three sections. Section one, comprising eight articles, examines the environment of education, including educational leadership, science education for women and minorities, rural educational needs, ethnic diversity in school staffs, the role of the superintendent, and political and demographic changes in school support. In the second section, another eight articles review practical problems and possible prospects in educational evaluation, fiscal reductions, the tasks of education, teacher education, collaboration between school districts and universities, private higher education, cooperative extension programs, and lifelong learning. The final section presents four articles that analyze larger cultural and global shifts, involving psychological and…
(2001). High Stakes Down Under for Indigenous Peoples: Learning from Maori Education in New Zealand; An Outsiders Perspective. This paper examines the education of New Zealand's Maori people, noting historical achievement and enrollment gaps between Maori and non-Maori students. This gap is due to family economics, educational resources, cultural and racial barriers at school, negative school attitudes among older Maori students, and the student achievement testing system. The paper discusses the history of Maori education, Maori traditional culture and society, Maori learning styles and teaching techniques, and the Maori cultural revival that began in the latter 20th century. It describes the proliferation of Maori education programs that began within the New Zealand public education system and through separate Maori initiatives since the mid-1970s. It concludes by examining present and future trends, noting that several reviews and policy documents dealing with every aspect of New Zealand's education system (published between 1987-89) profoundly affected the structure of New Zealand education. At the same… [PDF]
(1992). Promoting Beginning Teachers' Success in Teaching Linguistically Diverse Students: A Synthesis of Relevant Knowledge and Practice. This report synthesizes knowledge and instructional practices appropriate for effective instruction in classrooms comprised of students from three or more linguistic backgrounds. It specifically targets beginning teachers in Arizona, California, and Nevada schools where numbers of ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse students have increased dramatically. Following an introduction, the publication is organized into four sections: (1) "The Striking Contrast between the Region's Teachers and Students" presents facts and figures concerning changing student demographics and the concurrent lack of a demographic shift in the teaching force; (2) "Basic Knowledge about Language Development and Second Language Acquisition for Beginning Teachers" presents major findings from research on language development and second language learning, discusses the role of the students' first language in English acquisition, and draws implications of this research for… [PDF]