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Resulting from a Sacramento City College (SCC) project to improve teaching and learning by directly involving faculty in research to measure student learning outcomes, this document contains reports by seven SCC faculty members on their own classroom-based research projects. "Skills-Intervention Instruction," by Linda Briggs, describes a study which determined that skills-intervention instruction had a positive effect on students' reading, writing and critical thinking skills. "Integrating Content Area, Study, and Writing Skills Instruction," by Robert T. Carroll, reports on a project which sought to measure the effect of integrating study and writing skills instruction with content area instruction. "Intervention Strategies for Student Retention," by Barbara Davis, presents findings from a study which measured whether early student/teacher commitment would reduce the high numbers of initial class drops. "Teaching for Competency," by Liz Ginsburg, compares second semester college Spanish classes taught by a communication-oriented method with classes taught under more traditional methods. "Math Skills and the Hand Held Calculator," by Ron Hatton, examines the effect of hand held calculator use and non-use on students' learning. "Instructional Methods for Teaching Comprehension Skills," by Del Prescott, compares two models for teaching reading comprehension skills. Finally, "Prediction and Other Strategies Using Students' Experiential Background in Teaching Economics," by Linda L. Stroh, reports on an attempt to enhance student understanding of the economics term "Human Capital Investment" by evaluating students' own reasons for attending college. Attached exhibits include: (1) correspondence, agendas, and other working papers of the project; (2) a list of research applications; (3) a 31-item bibliography; and (4) a survey form for the seven faculty members whose research applications were accetped for the project. (JMC)

In 1985-1987, seven faculty members at Sacramento City College (SCC), California, conducted classroom-based research studies as part of an effort by the college to involve faculty directly in research as a means to improve teaching and learning. In 1987-88, three follow-up studies were conducted to validate and/or expand upon the original research. This monograph contains the three reports undertaken as follow-up studies. The first study, "Integrating Content Area, Study, and Writing Skills Instruction: Follow-up Study," by Robert T. Carroll, was unable to find any significant effect on learning outcomes (as measured by exam scores and retention rates) attributable to the introduction of study and writing skills instruction into a philosophy class. The second report, "Logarithms and the Hand Held Calculator," by Ronald Hatton, indicates that no significant difference was found between students using hand-held calculators and students working free-hand, in their ability to perform exponential and logarithmic functions in one out of three cases. The final study, "Combined Reading and Writing Instruction," by Delbert L. Prescott, examined skills improvement among a group of students reading below the seventh grade level to determine whether: (1) writing instruction improved reading skills; (2) reading instruction improved reading skills; and (3) combining reading and writing improved retention rates and promoted advancement. Improvement was found in all areas except reading comprehension. Evaluation instruments and the original program budget proposal are included. (JMC)