Both simultaneous prompting and antecedent prompt and test procedures were effective in teaching four adolescents with moderate mental retardation to read grocery sight words. However, the antecedent prompt and test procedure was more efficient on measures of acquisition and the simultaneous prompting procedure was more efficient on measures of…

Analyzes the application of levels of deficits or supports in the classification of mental retardation in published research. Analysis of data from three professional journals indicated that the supports model of classification has had no significant impact in subject descriptions reported in mental-retardation research. Implications for teacher…

This article stresses the interconnectedness of special education with the overall public education system. It posits that the purpose of public schools should be to: (1) enculturate youth into social and political democracy; (2) ensure excellent and equitable educational outcomes; and (3) use a caring pedagogy. Special educators should act as…

The parents of a 31-year-old man with mental retardation, mental illness, and behavioral disorders describe how his relatively independent life style is maintained through comprehensive lifestyle support including friends, home, work, community connections, transportation, and family. Anecdotal accounts illustrate interventions effective with…

This qualitative study of life management in 15 families of children with various disability characteristics and ages identified effective life management strategies (e.g., positive personal reframing), positive parent characteristics (e.g., decision-making ability), and parents' experiences of positive transformational outcomes in personal,…

Content analysis was used to evaluate diary entries of six adolescents with physical and cognitive disabilities. Themes concerning daily stress-coping phenomena were identified including time and task management, awareness of limitations caused by disability, and intense, yet naive, concern about boy-girl relationships. (DB)

Analysis of 68 books for children and adolescents which included characters with mental retardation found that the characters with retardation were usually supporting (61 percent) rather than main characters, were static throughout the story (54 percent), and that books were rarely written from the perspective of the character with mental…

This review of the literature on consultation in heterogeneous classrooms provides first, an overview of consultation; second, a description of school-based consultation; third, a research synthesis of exemplary studies of school-based consultation; and, finally, suggestions for future research and implications for practice. (Author/DB)

This study examined the use of portfolio assessment with secondary students with mental retardation using surveys, interviews, and observations. Themes emerged across four major domains: communication, student outcomes, time, and support. Results indicated that portfolio assessment may help foster self-determination in these students. (DB)

This issue contains eight articles on a wide variety of topics in business and training education. "Ethics and beyond: Enhancing Communication and Critical Thinking Skills through Ethics Instruction" (Sandra A. Howard) offers strategies for incorporating ethics instruction in the business curriculum that can also enhance students' communication…

Linkages between the labor market and educational institutions are often less than optimal because institutions have too few business/industry contacts, supply and demand are mismatched, or curriculum development takes too long. International comparisons may contribute to understanding of vocational education and training configurations and…

Of four models for school-to-work transition (direct, deregulated, regulated overlapping, and shifted), Germany's dual vocational training system is a regulated overlapping system that offers learners a smooth bridge from the role of pupil to that of qualified skilled worker. (SK)

Describes vocational education and training (VET) policy in the Netherlands, components of the VET system (prevocational education, senior secondary vocational education, apprenticeships, higher vocational education, adult continuing education), and features of work-based learning in school-to-work programs. (SK)

Discusses the government role in school-to-work (STW) in England and Wales, youth unemployment and the labor market, effects of deregulation, current research on STW, and the introduction of modern apprenticeship, in which formal training in further education colleges is combined with apprenticeship. (SK)

School-to-work (STW) transition in the United States remains at an incubation stage despite the impetus of the School to Work Opportunities Act. Promising reforms such as cooperative vocational education and High Schools that Work need continued support if a comprehensive STW system is to be realized. (SK)