(1978). The Illinois CBAE Project: A Voluntary Alternative for Implementing Competency-Based Adult Education. Designed to develop competency-based adult education (CBAE) as an alternative adult education delivery system, the Illinois CBAE Project provided a series of three workshops and a consultation for 48 Illinois adult education practitioners. The workshops consisted of an awareness workshop, a module development workshop, and an evaluation and sharing workshop. During the workshops, participants designed competency-based modules for adults that were later implemented into local curriculums. The CBAE training project was judged to be highly successful for a variety of reasons, including the following: the voluntary nature of the project, the criterion-based selection process used to screen participants, support given to the project by local program administration, and a training model that allowed participants choices and allowed a period of time for reflection. While most people connected with the project were pleased with its outcomes, some commented on time pressures felt during the…
(1977). Comments on Progress Report: A Cost-Benefit Model of Some Critical Library Operations in Terms of Use of Serials (April 29, 1977) by Allen Kent and Others. In their study of the usage demands placed on journal collections in academic libraries, Allen Kent and coauthors have not adequately considered the long-term variability of those demands in their formulation of a cost-benefit model for the management of journal collections. Though resource-sharing and the matching of periodical acquisitions to usage patterns can yield significant budgetary savings, the data gathering and data analysis techniques employed in Kent's study have limitations for predicting future use patterns and for making acquisitions decisions. The study fails to account for biases in usage patterns attributable to cyclical demands through the service day and academic year, and also fails to consider the intensity of journal use–quickly scanning an item counted as equivalent to reading it for several hours. Another shortcoming is the costly, labor-intensive aspect of Kent's technique: interviewers were used to contact individual journal users. Generalizing… [PDF]
(1978). How New Manufacturing Industry Affects Rural Areas–A Synthesis. Rural Development Synthesis Series No. 1A. In assessing impacts of rural industrial development, it is important to include not only economic impacts but the interface between organizational, political, and behavioral aspects with economic aspects. Though effects depend on a variety of economic and institutional circumstances, several observations can be made about how new manufacturing industry affects not only rural area economies but also social and political systems. Many of the employment and income benefits to local residents \leak\ out to surrounding regions, reducing cost effectiveness in terms of raising incomes of local people, decreasing poverty, reducing unemployment, and improving income distribution. Over the long term, industrialization can cause loss of social cohesion, depersonalization of human relations, and replacement of the family as a primary functional social unit. Local communities may lose local autonomy, especially when absentee-owned branch plants are involved, influencing community capacity to…
(1979). PDE Occupational Competency Assessment Project–1979. Final Report. Occupational Competency Evaluation Monograph, Number 10. Vocational Technical Education Research Report, Volume 17, Number 23. A project continued activity to improve the occupational competency assessment program for evaluating and certifying vocational education teachers. Development of new testing was continued by Temple University, The Pennsylvania State University, and University of Pittsburgh. Workshops for test developers were conducted to ensure standardization of the end product. Review of completed products and use of validation studies permitted improvement in individual tests. Statistical studies, using candidate testing results from the three universities, provided normative data that can be applied with greater reliability in establishing scoring parameters. Quality testing instruments were made available through centralized printing and distribution by National Occupational Competency Testing Institute (NOCTI). The entire Pennsylvania test bank was transferred to NOCTI who would provide management, including printing and dissemination, storing, norm accumulation, revision, and update…. [PDF]
(1980). Third Party Payments for Related Services: Policy Issues and Implications for Handicapped Students. Insurance carriers and state directors of special education were contacted for information regarding policies regarding third party payments for related services mandated for handicapped students under P. L. 94-142, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act. Insurance companies were queried regarding reimbursable services, conditions for reimbursement, levels of reimbursement, and qualifications for eligible providers. Findings indicated that school systems are not eligible for reimbursement under the individual's group health insurance policy, and that otherwise reimbursable services are not reimbursable to the school system when the system provides those services. Analysis of state policies revealed confusion over the distinction between educationally and medically related services. Among other findings was that insurance companies negate payments based on governmental benefits exclusion clauses for services required by law. Potential strategies for obtaining third party…
(1978). Coordination of International Exchange and Training Programs–Opportunities and Limitations. Report to the Congress by the Comptroller General of the United States. The history of international exchange and training programs conducted by a score of federal agencies over the past thirty years compels the conclusion that, while there remain meaningful opportunities to develop closer coordination, there are also important inherent limitations. This report seeks to clarify both. What is needed to perfect meaningful coordination in this field appears to be more modest and manageable than some of the efforts and proposals of recent years: not a new layer of bureaucracy, but a series of specific arrangements to identify real interagency problems as they emerge and a predisposition on the part of the agencies concerned to deal with them case by case. In this report the General Accounting Office offers some suggestions as to how the new International Communication Agency might fulfill its presidential mandate as the coordinator of government exchange programs and a governmental focal point for programs in the private sector. (The appendixes include the… [PDF]
(1973). Self-Concept Enhancement of Preschool Children. This study investigated whether a self-concept enhancement program would effect significant change in the self-concepts of 4-year-old middle class preschoolers as compared with classmates not in the program. All participating children (N=52) were pre- and posttested using the Thomas Self-Concept Values Test and the Developmental Profile. The experimental group consisted of 34 children, who participated in 33 sessions (one 20- to 30-minute session per day) over an 11-week period. Activities focused on enhancement of the physical, intellectual, emotional, and social self. The control group consisted of 18 children. Results indicated the experimental group did show more significant changes in self-concept scores than the control group. Parallels were observed between significant self-concept scale changes in the experimental group and certain specific self-concept enhancement activities. Teachers' ratings and children's self-reports indicated very significant increases on the factor… [PDF]
(2002). Sustaining Technology in Low-Income Neighborhoods. A Consultative Session Convened by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Thematic Summary. This report summarizes the presentations of 35 professionals from diverse sectors of society working on different aspects of the digital divide. Various uses of technology have been supported over the past decade to improve outcomes for low-income groups. This session focused on the issue of technology sustainability in the face of increasing competition for long-term funding. It examined how technology investments were made lasting and valuable for communities, how technology investments were made profitable to companies who installed the platforms, and how to make technology access universal and sustainable. Participants identified key issues related to sustaining technology and proposed strategic responses. Barriers to sustainability included the escalating and overwhelming nature of the demand and redundancy of information on the Internet. Participants identified the significant lack of a unified national public policy agenda on universal access and sustainability, especially as… [PDF]
(1997). Developing Literacy: A Co-Teaching Model Using Readers' and Writers' Workshop. A program at Viers Mill Elementary School (Silver Spring, Maryland) to develop the literacy skills of both English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) and native English students is described. The program uses a co-teaching model, in which classroom teachers and ESL teachers collaborate by providing readers' and writers' workshops. The workshops have been extended from the initial offering in first and second grade classes to first through fifth grades. During the sixty-minute reading/language arts instructional block, students participate in workshops that include whole-group mini-lessons, a large block of independent work and conferencing time, and a whole-group sharing time. ESL and classroom teachers team-teach the mini-lessons two or three days a week; on days without mini-lessons, students are brought together to discuss the day's plans and to set individual goals to be met during the workshop. During independent work, time, teachers conference with individual students about books they… [PDF]
(1999). Between Home and School: Cultural Interchange in an Elementary Classroom. The Series on Cultural Interchange. This monograph presents a study of cultural interchange in a second/third grade classroom within a parent-founded school. It follows one child from a religious family who traveled a long distance, both geographically and psychologically, from home to school. The study addresses influences that students encountered in traveling between home and school, focusing on cultural interchange. The researcher was in the classroom several days each week for 1 academic year and attended most parent events. She met and interviewed parents and families. This monograph looks at how families came to know the classroom; the theme of the classroom, which was living together and sharing perspectives; questions about thinking in racial and ethnic types; religiosity at home and the effect on the school experience; differing perspectives between home and school; and opening the doors for new thinking. The monograph concludes with implications that evolved from the interaction between the classroom and… [PDF]
(2006). Electronic [Re]Constitution of Groups: Group Dynamics from Face-to-Face to an Online Setting. International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, v1 n4 p467-480 Dec. The authors work as online tutors for a BSc (Hons) physiotherapy programme at Coventry University in the United Kingdom. This paper represents a stage in our developing understanding, over a 3 year period, of the impact of group dynamics on online interaction among physiotherapy students engaged in sharing with their peers their first experiences of clinical practice. The literature exploring online interaction tends to situate meaning either in theories borrowed from conventional face-to-face interaction or on virtual interaction. Research focusing on "blended learning" that combines face-to-face and online interaction is limited in terms of considering how group dynamics impact groups that are constituted and reconstituted in the two very different learning contexts. Using a case study approach, the authors consider how group dynamics change as groups move from face-to-face to online collaboration in pursuit of learning objectives. We characterize typical features of the… [Direct]
(2009). How Parental HIV Affects Children. Research Highlights. RAND Corporation The shadow cast by HIV reaches beyond individuals diagnosed with the condition. It touches the lives of family members, friends, coworkers, and many others. One group in particular that feels these effects keenly is the children of HIV-positive parents. With improved treatments that have extended the life expectancies of HIV-infected people and prevented transmission during pregnancy, the number of children with an HIV-infected parent is expected to grow. An emerging body of research conducted by RAND and several collaborating institutions has shed light on the problems confronting this population and has provided a policy perspective for addressing them. Key findings of these research studies include: (1) One-quarter of HIV-infected parents avoided common physical interactions with their children \a lot\ due to misconceived fears of transmitting HIV. Some children expressed legitimate fears about transmission through blood, but also misconceived fears about transmission through… [Direct]
(2006). The Impact of the Political Context on Discourse Characteristics in Jewish-Arab Encounters in Israel: Between Peace Talks and Violent Events. Intercultural Education, v17 n4 p341-358 Oct. Research in the field of intergroup relations has developed considerably over the last two decades, influenced by events and by the historical zeitgeist. We suggest applying an interactional way of dealing with intergroup encounters, which emphasizes the situational macro-context (political, historical and social) in which the contact takes place. Employing this approach, the impact of the social-political context on the characteristics of two encounters in which Jewish and Arab Israeli students met to deal with the Israeli-Arab political conflict was examined. The workshops took place within two completely different political contexts. The first workshop was at the time of peace talks, following the Oslo Accords (1996-1997), the second during the "al-Aksa Intifada" (2001-2002). The discussions were recorded and fully transcribed. The two workshops were compared using a typology for classification of the developmental process of discourse between groups. The analysis… [Direct]
(1988). Student Outcomes Assessment Survey 1987-88. ASHE 1988 Annual Meeting Paper. The National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) conducted a national survey to determine the status of local campus initiatives in student outcomes assessment. Its goal was to determine whether assessment programs have been or are being developed, the objectives and source of initiation, and assessment techniques. Of particular interest was the role student affairs played in local initiatives. All U.S. and Canadian NASPA member institutions (n=1,140) were surveyed using the Total Design Survey Method; a total of 821 responses were received. Focus was on four areas: general institutional information, student outcome program/plan, information sharing, and optional. Institutions were identified as a two-year college, four-year college, university, or graduate school. The study indicates that institutions are responding to the pressure for reform by implementing outcomes assessment programs. This trend does not vary by type or size of institution, and the…
(2008). What Will Keep Today's Teachers Teaching? Looking for a Hook as a New Career Cycle Emerges. Teachers College Record, v110 n1 p160-194. Context: Drawing from Ingersoll's (2001) study of teacher attrition, Huberman's (1989) study of the professional life cycle of teachers, and recent retention/attrition literature across the professions, this study seeks to make sense of the complexities of contemporary teachers' careers in light of changes in social and economic forces, the relationships between political and educational institutions, and the work of teaching over the past 20 years. Study purpose & focus: The empirical part of this study explores how teachers with 4-6 years' experience conceive of their career path in education, as well as ways that universities and schools can better partner to increase teacher job satisfaction. It also provides professional development and opportunities for growth as teacher educators, examining any potential benefits to these teachers, their schools, and the interns they work with. Participants & setting: Seven teachers with 4-6 years' experience in one school district in… [Direct]