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A model program was developed and implemented by the Tucson Unified School District in Arizona to establish a family-school partnership to improve the educational achievement of at-risk preschool students. Program participants included 411 at-risk students, 405 families, and 25 staff members. The program, entitled Families First, provided inservice training for teachers and professional staff, training for parents and families, support networks for parents, direct parent involvement in the schools, and summer programs over the course of 3 years. An evaluation of the program found that the majority of participating parents had realistically high expectations for their children, that increasing numbers of parents became involved in their children's education, that nearly half of the parents implemented educational recommendations for their children at home, that children have made statistically significant gains in achievement, and that teachers and professional staff have become more proficient in working with at-risk students and their families. (MDM)

This research described the classroom implementation of a supplemental activities-based mathematics project designed for low-achieving students. The research describes the development of applied ethnographic methods for observing and describing the way programs are implemented using curriculum specialists, or resource teachers, to help teachers in the regular classroom to improve instructional services for economically disadvantaged minority students. A model for use by school district evaluators in conducting ethnographic evaluation studies was developed. The research consisted of ethnographic observations of mathematics lessons and student learning in nine classrooms in Grades 2 through 5 in eight schools serving low-income attendance areas. Observations were conducted over approximately a five-week period by four trained ethnographic assistants. Observations were scheduled before, during and following the delivery of classroom services of Mathematics Project Specialists. Themes emerging from the study indicated that the predominance of classroom structure, the conditional nature of classroom teacher-resource teacher collaboration, teacher inservice, and teacher's evaluations of subsequent student achievement growth were key factors in program implementation. Ethnographic descriptions of mathematic classroom activity structures provided a number of insights into the contribution of mathematic games and other manipulative aids to the learning of low-achieving students. The final report is subdivided as follows: (1) Abstract, Executive Summary, Addendum; (2) Part one, "An Ethnographic Evaluation of Program Implementation"; (3) Part two, "Mathematics Learning of Low Achieving Students through Mathematics Games and Other Manipulative Aids"; and (4) Part three, "Eight Disaggregated Case Studies." (MP)

The Chapter 1 Language Enrichment Communicative Skills Project served students in eleven Tucson Arizona elementary schools in the primary grades during the 1983-84 school year. The project provided supplementary instruction in oral language interaction and developmental reading and writing in small groups. Students were selected on the basis of greatest need in terms of academic and sociolinguistic competencies related to success in school. The evaluation results indicated that first grade students attained the objective of improvement in terms of relative status in relation to national norms on the California Achievement Test, Reading Subtest, but that second-grade participants did not. However, when grade two students were retested out-of-level at the end of grade two on the same reading test that they took at the end of grade one, the results showed that the students had achieved a statistically significant raw score gain. Students' writing samples indicated that their writing improved in both content and form. Appendices contain: (1) the Teacher Observation Measure of Communicative Competencies; (2) achievement test data; (3) the Sustained Gains Study of the First Cohort; and (4) the descriptive analysis of writing samples. (Author/DWH)

The validity of the equipercentile hypothesis of the Title I Evaluation and Reporting System (TIERS) norm-referenced evaluation model was examined. The California Achievement Test, Reading, was administered as a pretest and posttest to 3,224 seventh and ninth grade students. The equipercentile hypothesis predicts that the posttest percentile status would be the same as the pretest percentile status for students not receiving special education programs. Students' gains at 10 different achievement levels were evaluated employing the norm-referenced model. The findings contradicted the equipercentile hypothesis. There was a clear pattern of large gains for students not receiving any special educational instruction. (Author/CM)

Testwiseness (TW) and its effect on the reading comprehension scores in four ethnic populations (Black, Hispanic, Native American, and Anglo) from the Tucson Unified School District were investigated. Inservice-trained teachers presented seven classroom TW teaching and practicing sessions of 15 minutes each to students in grades 3, 5, and 7. Students were administered the Test of Testwiseness; they were pretested and posttested with the Reading Comprehension subtest of either the California Achievement Tests (grades 3 and 7) or the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills (grade 5). Differential reading ability and socioeconomic level, both variables highly correlated with testwiseness, were statistically controlled. It was found that (1) no ethnic group possessed a significantly greater or lesser amount of testwiseness when different reading ability and socioeconomic levels were controlled; (2) when instructed in testwiseness, gains appeared comparable among ethnic groups; and (3) the amount of testwiseness training did not appear to affect reading comprehension scores on a standardized achievement test. (Author/PN)

The Special Education Vocational Education Program (SEVEP) is a program implemented by the Tucson Unified School District to bring area high school students with special needs together with cooperating employers. Eligible students are identified and pre-assessed regarding individual aptitudes, interests and needs. General instruction may include training in career decision-making skills, employability and social skills training, pre-entry development of specific vocational skills, and related instruction by a job development specialist. Subsequent on-the-job training involves extensive analysis and matching of job sites with student needs and abilities, as well as ongoing monitoring and re-evaluation by job development specialists and the completion of a training plan agreement specifying goals and responsibilities. Later support services include maintaining contact with the job development specialist and the provision of workshops, counseling and additional training as needed. Financial benefits to the employer include Targeted Job Tax Credits, wage subsidies from state and local agencies, and tax deductions for removal of architectural barriers. Other benefits include access to results of pre-screening and ongoing training support and technical assistance. The handbook identifies and gives corrective information for several popular misconceptions regarding handicapped people in the workplace. Appendices explain acronyms, define vocational terms, and list informational pamphlets and sources of job site accommodation assistance. (PB)

A total of 96 students identified as academically at risk were selected to participate in an extended-day kindergarten program featuring small class size and a whole-language approach to the curriculum and learning. High-risk students attended regular morning kindergarten classes as well as the extended-day sessions; comparison students attended morning classes only. Additional instruction time for the high-risk students ranged from 119 to 242 hours, depending upon which of five participating schools the students attended. A pretest posttest design was used to compare gains on the Listening subtest of the California Achievement Test, Part C, made by 33 students participating in five extended-day classrooms with gains made by 191 students in the same or similar schools who attended half-day kindergarten classes. A similar analysis was performed on gains on the "Prueba Boehm de Conceptos Basicos" made by 14 participants and 27 nonparticipants with limited English-speaking ability. The extended-day kindergarten was found to have a positive effect on the achievement of students regardless of students' language background. Program participants made statistically and educationally significant gains on standardized tests and on teacher ratings of classroom performance. In one school, where all 29 students participated in two extended-kindergarten classrooms, pretest posttest gains on the Metropolitan Readiness Test were higher than in previous years. (Author/RH)