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The papers in this volume resulted from a conference of British language educators convened to explore the common interests of those concerned with teaching English and foreign languages, particularly to the 11-15 age range. The students' social background and the special needs of immigrant children were also considered in relation to language in the curriculum. The first eight papers in this collection are revised versions of those presented at the conference. They are: (1) "English and Foreign Languages" by G. E. Perren, (2) "A Social View of Language in School" by Harold Rosen, (3) "Towards an Educational Theory of Language" by Peter Doughty, (4) "English in the Curriculum" by James Britton, (5) "Modern Languages in the Curriculum" by Eric Hawkins, (6) "Attitudes Toward Foreign Learning in Early Adolescence" by Clare Burstall, (7) "Patterns in the Discourse of Pupils and Teachers" by Ian J. Forsyth, and (8) "The Space Between" by James Wight. The ninth paper draws attention to some problems arising from discussions at the conference. An appendix listing participants is included. (Author/LG)

The seminar on assessment and accountability in education was believed to be the first national conference concerned with these coordinate issues. The participants generally concurred that accountability is a many faceted phenomenon with varying interpretations. It was further agreed that the major obstacle to setting up measures of accountability has been a lack of knowledge: school personnel have not known what to do or what to identify in demonstrating and describing the effectiveness of the educational enterprise. Before school personnel can be held completely accountable, there must be a sharper focus on the goals and objectives of teaching and learning. (Author/WM)

In this series of papers, primary consideration is given to manifest (expressed) and latent (unexpressed) perspectives on the College Level Examination Program held by faculty, administrators, and students in the Junior College District of Metropolitan Kansas City, Missouri. The first paper, "The Pros and Cons of CLEP: A Student Personnel Perspective," describes the historical development of the CLEP and relates key elements of the program to current issues in higher education. Consideration is also given to the presentation of basic methodological constructs that were used in the development of CLEP. Paper 2, "A Student Perspective on the CLEP Program," deals with the conceptual foundation of CLEP in terms of Maslow's theory of self-actualization. Paper 3, "A Faculty Perspective on CLEP," serves as an overview of faculty perceptions of CLEP. The final paper, "Functions and Dysfunctions of the College Level Examination Program for Institutional Subcultures in the Community College," projects manifest and latent perspectives of CLEP into the political milieu of institutional governance--the major problems and concerns related to CLEP perceived by institutional subcultures are discussed, and a model pertaining to alternative strategies for organization and implementation of CLEP is presented. (Author/DB)

Because of the tendency to reject Black English speakers, perhaps as an excuse for maintaining social and racial prejudices, teachers should understand that nonstandard dialects result from geographical and/or cultural isolation and conflict (as in Applachian English), and from linguistic conflict (as in Chicano English). The language of many black people reflects both pidgin English--minimal communication produced by a conflict between seventeenth-century English and West African languages, and West African language structure--lacking verb or noun endings. Black English features, as seen in a typical example of one black student's composition papers, consist of few inflectional verb and noun endings, and the unusual use of derivational morphemes. To effectively help in the development of black students' writing, teachers' usual compulsive concern for correct mechanics should be replaced by an emphasis on students' writing more coherently (especially in theme development) and interestingly in their own dialect. (An appendix includes the black student's paper and an examination of Black English morphological examples.) (JM)

This paper argues that it may be much more damaging, psychologically, to try to correct the written usage of persons whose nonstandard written forms correlate with their spoken dialect than to try to correct the nonstandard written forms of persons who do not use nonstandard forms in their speech. It is possible that nonstandard speakers will view a teacher's attempt to correct their nonstandard written forms as a way of denying the validity of their culture. It is concluded that it is quite possible that a correlation exists between students' spoken dialect and their written language and that, as there is no single standard of English, it is antihumanistic to require all students to master one particular dialect. (TS)

This document presents a description of a science education program which provides experiences in the affective, cognitive, and psychomotor domains. The methods course has no required textbook and is an activity-oriented course, requiring students to become acquainted with three of the national elementary science projects: Elementary Science Study (ESS), Science Curriculum Improvement Study (SCIS), and Science - A Process Approach (SAPA), as well as Science for the Seventies - Pennsylvania's Guide to Elementary School Science. The class learns through a series of mini-investigations using concrete manipulative experiences as a vehicle for the instructors to model desirable teaching strategies. Both formal and informal methods were used to assess the program. The formal assessment consisted of pre- and post-testing a group of students, using the Allison Attitude Scale. Evidence demonstrated a high degree of success in improving the attitudes of preservice teachers toward science. The paper also presents a brief report on science teaching in Pennsylvania public elementary schools during the 1971-72 school year. (Author/EB)

This conference paper suggests a promising model, based on a study of elementary school teachers in California, to investigate the relationship between the cognitive characteristics of teachers, their teaching behavior, and the academic success of their pupils. In the research model, two major components which affect student achievement were measured: (1) Teacher Knowledge (knowledge of subject being taught and knowledge of teaching); and (2) Teacher Aptitude (verbal, numerical, reasoning, memory, and kinds of divergent production aptitude). It is hypothesized that certain matches between teacher and pupil knowledge, skill, aptitude, and cognitive style tend to facilitate pupil learning. A preliminary factor analysis of the above components indicates that the Teacher Test Battery developed in conjunction with this research model was actually able to measure these structures. (CS)

The evaluation of a public tax-supported alternative school is described. The emphasis is upon the problems involved in the evaluation of this kind of school and suggested methods of overcoming them. A post-pre design combined with control groups is described, and the pros and cons of involvement and detachment on the part of the evaluators is considered. The problems associated with reactivity of the program staff and students to the evaluators are discussed. The main findings and results are presented. (Author)

Predicated on the premise that social justice cannot be achieved without social action, that change does not occur without change agents, and that the only significant reforms in schools are those promoting social justice, it is argued that teachers who are reformers in education must be willing to pay their dues. Traditional approaches to reform are available so long as one remains within the bureaucratic structure, and not all rewards for promoting change are positive. On the whole, there are a few models to inspire students in education to become more oriented to reform. It is those involved in reform at the college level, however, who gain experiences to prepare them to be truly effective teachers. As a reform effort is a political act, reformers must recognize the risks of being perceived as different and the difficulty of bridging the gap between rhetoric and implementation. The emphasis on job security in education and a surplus supply of teachers lessens the attractiveness of challenging the educational status quo. If one wishes, therefore, to be a reformer, one will pay some dues both personally and professionally. While not everything that happens to the reformer is necessarily negative, hard work and frustration must be expected. (Author/KSM)

The purpose of this study was to investigate the usefulness of a procedure (a modification of the Delphi technique) for identifying racially-related problems and achieving some consensus on solutions to these problems among students, parents, and the school staff. The students who participated attended six classes which were selected to provide a balanced cross-section of students. The first step was the completion of an open-ended questionnaire designed to elicit racially-connected school problems and suggested solutions. A second questionnaire was developed using the problems most frequently mentioned by the different groups representing each race. Under each problem were listed solutions that were suggested by the respondents, as well as those suggested by the project staff and two consultants. This second questionnaire was distributed to the participants asking them to evaluate each proposed solution to a problem on a five-point scale, or if they felt that the statement was not a problem, they could check that alternative. A third and final questionnaire was to be administered to the participants, specifying the most frequent response given to each solution. The third questionnaire was not approved by the principal and therefore was not administered. Even without the third questionnaire, this modified Delphi technique did provide a surprising degree of consensus concerning the solutions to most of the problems which were identified. (Author/JM)

This study examines the hypothesis that the accuracy of teachers' evaluations of their students is higher if (1) the teacher and the student are of the same race, and (2) the teacher and the student are of the same sex. Data were collected in the 1969 Survey on Compensatory Education, a survey of national scope sponsored by the U.S. Office of Education. The survey secured data from school superintendents, elementary school principals, and elementary school teachers. Teachers answered questions about themselves and their classes in responding to a "Teacher Questionnaire," and answered questions about individual pupils in their classes in responding to several "Pupil Questionnaires." Survey data were secured from a nationally-representative sample of public school systems and elementary schools which provided services, supported in whole or in part through Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, during the 1968-69 school year. Only students and teachers from grade 4 were considered in the present study. The results of this study suggest that much of the literature on the topic of race and social distance may not be applicable to classroom teachers. "White female teachers rating blacks" were most accurate, and "black teachers rating blacks" were least accurate. The most accurate evaluations were made by female teachers and by whites rating other whites. (Author/JM)

This study examines the relationship between teachers' criteria for grouping children and the socioeconomic status of those children, and investigates the extent of the socioeconomic segregation which is occurring in classrooms because of teachers' grouping practices. The sample consists of 37 elementary school teachers and their students. The teachers were asked to recommend their pupils for placement in high, middle, or low reading groups for the following year and name the criteria on which they based the placement of each child. These ratings were then compared with another rating of the same pupils based on reading comprehension test scores. A comparison of the two ratings shows that teachers placed some pupils in groups other than indicated as appropriately by their reading test scores. An examination of the rating criteria indicates that teachers rely mainly on perceived ability, achievement, and work habits; however, some students were misplaced on the basis of nonacademic criteria relating to social class. The author concludes that these findings do not fully support the commonly held belief that teachers are furthering socioeconomic segregation in their classrooms by using criteria for grouping which are related to students' socioeconomic status. (RWP)

Factor analyses of 1,359 Teacher Concerns Statements (TCS) indicate a single bipolar factor best describes preservice teachers' concerns, the poles being self-adequacy and teaching performance. Two concerns factors are required to describe inservice teachers' concerns: self-adequacy vs. pupil-benefit (bipolar), and teaching performance. Thus, the two-stage (self-adequacy, pupil-benefit) model of teacher concerns posited earlier for Frances Fuller in 1969 is no longer adequate. As predicted, preservice teachers had higher self-adequacy concerns scores, and inservice teachers had higher pupil-benefit scores. Of the four teacher groups studied (preservice male, female; inservice male, female), only the concerns of male inservice teachers matured with training/teacher experience. Implications for teacher education are discussed. (Author)

A successful evaluation or improvement of teaching program ought to develop after a careful consideration of the attitudes and perceptions of those most directly affected--namely students and faculty members. An understanding and awareness of the forces which control their actions on the intellectual-social-cultural environment of the university is necessary in order to implement an effective program in which students evaluate the performance of the instructor. Student assessment instruments often reflect a clear set of skills and personality characteristics which must be possessed by teachers if they are to receive high ratings. On the other hand, the long selection and training process which finally produces a college teacher may systematically deemphasize the acquisition of those skills and even penalize those who acquire them. In order to improve instructor evaluation the programs: (1) should be under the auspices of faculty and not students; (2) should recognize that there are many profiles of effective teaching; (3) should emphasize growth and change; and (4) should emphasize the fact that students are recording perceptions, not making summative evaluation. (MLP)

This paper contains the report of an investigation to determine what relationships existed between teacher competencies in science mastered via a televised inservice program (LIFT OFF!) and teachers' science-related attitudes, past experiences, and use of a science program (Science - A Process Approach). Evidence was obtained from the number of science activities a teacher used in the classroom. Subjects were 76 elementary teachers, grades K-6. Fifty teachers participated via color/cable television at their schools; 26, through the use of a videotape recorder. Participants varied in teaching experience, science content, and sex (two males). Data were collected via a pre- and post-semantic differential instrument, biographical information, and a post-science competency measure. Sixty-six teachers scored 29 or better for the 33 tasks on the science competency post-measure. The 26 who used videotape recorders which they could start and stop at will scored higher as a group on this measure than did the 50 teachers who used color/cable television. Teacher attitudes changed in a positive direction. A weekly tally of science activities taught showed a general increase over the 15 weeks. (Author/PEB)

Questions regarding changing professorial values are examined from three sources and methodologies--historical, sociological, and humanistic. Each approach contributes to an answer to the issue although each method has limitations. (The historical record is spotty. Socioeconomic status and religious background data are cross-sectional, not longitudinal. The novel selects and distorts reality, as is its right.) Nonetheless, the three methods support and reinforce one another and give confidence to the generalizations. Findings show persons entering the professoriate to continue to come from favored classes. Faculty from Jewish backgrounds hold posts far in excess of the national proportions, those from Catholic upbringing are increasing appreciably, and those from Protestant homes are steadily declining. Apostasy rates show all groups are alike. In all, the best judgment is that basic professorial values are not changing in significant ways. (Author)

As the implementation of year-round programs in school districts accelerates, the conceptual, promotional, and testimonial literature continues to keep pace. Empirical research on the subject, however, is lagging. The research available consists of feasibility studies, evaluation reports of implemented projects, dissertations, and isolated independent studies. Analysis of this research indicates a preoccupation with the educational and financial aspects of year-round programs. Costs, attitudes, and educational achievement are the most frequently considered variables in feasibility studies and evaluation reports. Dissertations cover a broad range of educational subjects, including planning, administrative tasks, characteristics of school districts sponsoring year-round programs, and curriculum change. A model developed to present the systematic impact of changes in school calendars on various societal institutions is the framework for this research literature review. (Author/MLF)

A description is given of the methodology and findings of an evaluation of learning packages (LAP's) developed for students in distributive education programs by representatives of the 11 state members of the Interstate Distributive Education Curriculum Consortium. A total of 445 packages was judged on characteristics relating to students, materials, administration, economics, and personnel. Analysis of the data revealed findings highly favorable to the LAP method of instruction when they were compared to criteria established by the consortium members. Results were important because they yielded information relevant to a major curricular endeavor in vocational education in the U.S. They represent findings about an initial attempt at using learning packages on a national basis. (Author)

This paper presents preliminary explorations of the nature of differences in first-name stereotypes among three ethnic groups. A total of 147 white, black, and Spanish teachers were divided into five subgroups determined by their geographic location (Miami, Florida to Atlanta, Georgia) and ethnic grouping. Each subject was asked to rate his or her impressions of some typical names using a seven-point scale for each of nine semantic differential subscales. Results indicated that there do appear to be differences in the content and quality of first-name stereotypes among teacher subgroups. These differences seem more pronounced for female first-names and for names thought to carry undesirable stereotypes. Additionally, there is some evidence of a chauvinistic masculinity-femininity set among the Florida ethnic groups. (SDH)