Marlene Strathe

Functional Life Skills, Academic Skills, and Friendship/Social Relationship Development: What Do Parents of Students with Moderate/Severe/Profound Disabilities Value?.

A pilot study was conducted to verify empirically the educational activity preferences of 68 parents of students with moderate and severe/profound mental disabilities. Parents were surveyed to determine the relative value they place on the three areas of functional life skills, academic skills, and friendship/social relationship development in the educational programs of their sons/daughters. Parents of students with moderate disabilities rated functional life skills most highly, while parents of students with severe/profound disabilities rated friendship/social relationship development most highly. Furthermore, parents of students with moderate disabilities rated each curricular area as more important than did parents of students with severe/profound disabilities.

Teacher Stress: The Elementary Teacher's Perspective.

The Elementary School Journal Volume 85, Number 4 ? 1985 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. 001 3-5984/85/8504-0008

Accountability in the Classroom: How Teachers Evaluate.

01 .00 There is a serious crisis in teaching in the United States. It jeopardizes this nations ability to conduct its own public affairs through the workings of an informed electorate. It endangers the nations capacity to compete effectively in a shrinking world where technological skill and inventiveness will determine

Taming the Young and the Restless: Strategies for Positive Classroom Control

Are teachers prepared to assess the effectiveness of their classroom instruction? The author explains what she learned from a survey of junior and senior high school teachers to determine their current practices and concludes by urging schools to provide inservice programs in the area of measurement skills.

Testing in Nontraditional Curriculum Areas

This article describes strategies for reducing disruptive classroom behaviors. The literature relative to classroom management and discipline contains numerous strategies (First & Mizell, 1980; Usher & Taylor, 1981), based on varied theoretical, research, or philosophical positions. For example, Purkey (1978) suggested strategies based on the building of self-concept; Ernst (1972) supported an approach incorporating a transactional analysis orientation; Kraus (1974) posited a cognitive-behavioral basis; while George (1980) emphasized the value and importance of personal reference groups. Regardless of the basis of the many approaches currently used, three elements are, in varying degrees, common to all; (1) the structure of the learning environment; (2) the teachers behaviors; and (3) the teacher-student interaction pattern. The authors believe the utilization of strategies representative of these three elements can significantly rechannel the energies of disruptive young adolescents thereby increasing the probability of successful teaching-learning transactions. THE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT The optimal learning environment provides the psychological and physical context necessary for maximizing the amount of time students spend actively engaged in academic tasks. Glassers (1965, 1969) work suggests that when students lack involvement in the learning environment, disruption may be a likely outcome. A number of current classroom

Leadership Behavior of School Principals in Relation to Teacher Stress, Satisfaction, and Performance

_ The use of standard procedures for measuring student learning in nontraditional curriculum areas provides tangible evidence of achievement as well as a unique instructional opportunity, according to these writers.