This article provides an initial look at the matches and mismatches between expectations held for vocational education programs and empirically observed outcomes. Three types of claims for vocational education were compared with recent research. The article concludes with recommendations for improving the alignment between expectations and…

Presents recommendations for developing the content of career development activities in secondary schools, including basic academic skills, occupational skills, job-seeking skills, world of work knowledge, and work values. Also presents recommendations to improve the delivery of career development activities in secondary schools and discusses the…

Reviews the National Commission on Secondary Vocational Education's findings regarding present attitudes, developing trends, and desirable goals associated with vocational education. Topics of discussion include vocational education's worth, status, flexibility, popularity, accessibility, equity, curriculum, teachers, program standards,…

Examines the use of conceptual frameworks in collecting qualitative data from multiple sites. Presents strategies for devising frameworks that are flexible and general without sacrificing specificity. (JOW)

The CLER (configurations, linkages, environments, resources) Model for planned change was evaluated to determine whether it could be applied in school settings, using empirical data from two recent national school improvement studies. While the model was applicable, it did not seem sufficiently precise to be, in itself, a powerful tool for school…

A study of 17 dropout prevention programs identified these common characteristics of successful programs: (1) multiple strategies integrated within a single program, (2) placement in environments dissimilar to traditional schools, (3) concentration of resources on a small target population, and (4) emphasis on vocational education and work…

Accounts of speech perception disagree on whether listeners perceive the acoustic signal (Diehl, Lotto, & Holt, 2004) or the vocal tract gestures that produce the signal (e.g., Fowler, 1986). In this dissertation, I outline a research program using a phenomenon called "perceptual compensation for coarticulation" (Mann, 1980) to examine this…

The long-term concern relative to education inequity indicates that the nation's youth will not be adequately prepared for the global and highly competitive marketplace of the 21st century (Casner-Lotto & Barrington, 2006). Initiatives to address this concern persist, including the creation of the virtual charter school (Vanourek, 2006;…

Two teachers have developed a procedure for grading student compositions that seems fairer to both them and their students. The students are given a choice of which papers they wish to submit for grading, and when they do submit work, the papers are identified by a number only (chosen by the student and indexed in a class card file). Each teacher…

Describes the benefits to be derived from a system of grading in which every student's paper is read by two teachers. (DD)

Experienced caregivers plan ahead for rainy days. This article describes specific rainy day activities for young children, such as books and crafts to learn about rain (rain in a jar, making a rainbow), simple cooking activities (taffy pull, cinnamon candy tea), and games (mummy wrap, hunt the thimble, rain lotto). (EV)

This article presents a rationale and ways to use communication games in written form to entice deaf children to try new forms of language. It emphasizes the importance of using communicative teaching methods and considering students' communicative adequacy rather than form. Games include picture/object matching games and bingo/lotto games. (JDD)

After a review of the literature on cognitive "cause maps" in organizational decision-making, this study describes a midwestern elementary school from the perspective of individual sensemaking, captured through individual cognitive maps of cause-effect relationships. Data were collected with an adaptation of Bougon's (1983) Self-Q…

Purpose: In this study, the authors examined whether rhythm metrics capable of distinguishing languages with high and low temporal stress contrast also can distinguish among control and dysarthric speakers of American English with perceptually distinct rhythm patterns. Methods: Acoustic measures of vocalic and consonantal segment durations were…

Responding to a critique of the book "The Economic Consequences of State Lotteries" (Praeger, 1991), a coauthor thanks reviewers for an in-depth analysis and comments on their remarks about the book's efficiency section. Reviewers misread the original authors' observations concerning elasticity of demand, inefficient diversions of…