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Students often fail to write effective synthesis essays that compare multiple sources across common intersecting categories. Instead, they compose flawed essays that focus primarily on one source and then add a few ideas from other sources (patchwriting); report ideas from all sources in a disjointed fashion (tag-all writing); or draw from one source after another without comparison (separate-representation writing). Effective synthesis writing depends on three strategies: selecting important information from each source, arranging the selected information in a graphic organizer for easy comparison, and connecting information from the various sources in a comparative way. The authors report on an established teaching and learning system called SOAR (Select, Organize, Associate, and Regulate) and its newly investigated impact on synthesis writing in the two studies that they conducted. In the first study, students provided with SOAR supplements (a graphic organizer, association prompts, and a regulation checklist) composed essays that contained more information, better synthesis organization, and more intertextual relationships than did essays from students who were not using SOAR supplements. In the second study, SOAR-trained students composed better organized synthesis essays than students who used their own preferred strategies. Across studies, students found SOAR helpful for synthesis writing and reported that they would be likely to use SOAR for future writing assignments. The authors conclude with an example of how to teach students to use SOAR when they write.

Children face many important changes in the first eight years of life, including different learning centres, social groups, roles and expectations. Their ability to adapt to such a dynamic and evolving environment directly affects their sense of identity and status within their community over the short and long term. In particular, the key turning points in children's lives--such as "graduating" from kindergarten to primary school or going through a culturally specific rite of passage--provide challenges and opportunities for learning and growth on multiple levels. This paper provides a review of the major perspectives in research on early childhood transitions and reveals the predominant areas of focus in both academic and professional studies, as well as important neglected viewpoints and study populations. Beginning with a broad and inclusive definition of the topic, the authors provide an overview of early childhood transitions research, highlighting the underlying assumptions that informed the studies. They assess concepts in the developmental theory that preceded transitions research as well as in the logic that determines how transitions are structured. More recent approaches are examined, including systems theories and the role of children as active participants in transitions. Several examples in this review show how multidisciplinary collaboration and culturally sensitive interventions can result in better participation of both parents and children in crucial early childhood transitions. Citing the need to harmonise early childhood education and care programmes with local education practices, the authors stress the value of greater transparency in the creation of policy and programming for children, in order to identify potentially limiting assumptions. Broadening and diversifying perspectives on transitions can lead to more integrated and culturally relevant rights-based early childhood programmes worldwide. A glossary and a bibliography are included. (Contains 7 footnotes.)

One prospect for the future of the Schools and Staffing Survey of the National Center for Data Collection is to continue in the direction set by its three previous rounds of surveys. Another approach, the one recommended in this paper, is to make the SASS the main vehicle of NCES for organizational information about U.S. schools from kindergarten through grade 12. The focus of the SASS should be broadened to include a wider scope of information on how American schools are organized. An examination of the limitations of the current SASS and the possibilities of new technical and methodological approaches leads to suggestions about the renewed SASS. A major focus of the new survey must be on how a school organizes its main dynamic components. A second main focus should be on how much of the school's organization is influenced by district, state, and federal educational agencies. The third focus states that the SASS must gather more information on financial resources and their flows to the point of instruction. Finally, a new SASS must include measures of school-level educational outcomes. Issues in implementing this new version of the SASS are discussed, and the reasons these changes are advisable are reviewed. (Contains 19 references.) (SLD)

This paper examines the impact of organizational factors on the rate at which juvenile courts commit referred youth to institutions. Analyzing a national sample, the paper demonstrates that both the rate at which cases are handled informally and the rate at which judges commit those youth who appear before them independently influence the overall commitment rate. It also discovers determinants of each of these two components of the commitment rate. The data support a view which stresses social and power processes, and not administrative rationality. Implications of the results for the analysis of juvenile courts and of public legal institutions in general are presented. (Author)

During 1976-77, 42% of U.S. schools operated with fewer than 600 pupils and 27% operated with fewer than 300 pupils; Iowa had 181 K-12 public school systems with fewer than 300 pupils in 1977-78. All of Iowa's smaller school systems were located in the more sparsely populated rural areas of the state, had higher than average per pupil assessed valuations and per pupil expenditures, and received lesser amounts of state aid per pupil. The gap in salaries for experienced and more highly degreed teachers in the smaller versus the larger districts had become appreciable and neared what could be called discriminatory. Smaller rural schools located in the more sparsely populated areas of the state experienced enrollment declines during the 1970's; projections indicate that the declines will continue into the 1970's, but with less severity than in the 1970's. Prepared as a guide for the 1979 session of the Iowa General Assembly, the paper provides national and Iowa perspectives of rural and small schools and presents guidelines and legislative alternatives for Iowa legislative action on "thinking rural", rural school and district organization, financing Iowa's rural schools, a recommended classification system for rural schools with declining enrollment, Iowa's rural teachers, and delivering appropriate services and programs to Iowa's rural schools. Appended is a list of Iowa's rural school districts under 650 enrollment and some examples of various states' policies on sparsity. (BR)

One in a series of discussion papers intended to promote exploration of issues related to volunteer motivation, recruitment, and development around the world, this report suggests that any country starting an intercultural exchange program may face problems similar to those encountered in Jamacia. The national director of an organization that operated adolescent and professional exchange programs in Jamaica outlined methods used to develop a volunteer base necessary for program operation. Elements identified as important in building the national organization included: initial steering group, building credibility, board structure, publicity and public relations, participation fees, and fundraising. Building a decentralized volunteer counseling network also was discussed. (DB)

Items studied in a library survey of U.S. institutions of higher education included shifts in decision-making bodies, unionization, and tenure. From the 1032 questionnaires returned, these findings resulted: (1) 175 of 1025 have unionized library staff--135 of them since 1971; (2) 496 of 1018 librarians responding said they were organized as a faculty or in a similar structure; 22 of 37 academic research libraries answering this question on structure responded similarly; for all libraries claiming faculty or faculty-like structure, 30 percent said that this organization represented a change since 1971; (3) in many areas of the study, 4-year colleges offering no graduate degrees reported the least amount of change; in many categories, the largest institutions (with 10,000 or more full-time enrolled students) reported the highest degree of change. Findings are summarized in 18 tables and discussed; the questionnaire and coding sheets are included. (Author/JD)

The world of work is composed of contradictory conditions which schooling tries to mediate through a reproductive process. The present organization of production based on wage-labor is inherently self-contradictory in that the interests of management and labor are directly opposed. School prepares individuals to deal with the types of peer relationships, authority figures, knowledge, and control over work content that they will eventually face on the job. This preparation, or correspondence of schooling to working conditions, facilitates workers' acceptance of the social and structural composition of labor. However, the mechanisms of this correspondence are beginning to break down, and a "crisis in education" is resulting. As jobs become more routinized and simplified to reduce costs and training time, school credentials are losing much of their meaning. No longer does a high level of academic achievement guarantee a high-paying, high-status job. As a result of this breakdown, workers are becoming increasingly disillusioned and cynical about the job market, and are applying pressure for more democratic, participatory forms of work organization. If such changes do occur in the world of work, then schooling processes must change in a corresponding fashion. (ELG)

A central system to organize teacher-made instructional materials for adult basic education/general educational development programs has a number of advantages. These include lower reproduction costs, encouragement of teacher planning in advance, encouragement of creativity and use of teacher synthesizing/writing skills, rapid orientation of teachers regarding appropriate materials, and encouragement of sharing with the faculty/staff. Incentives for teacher use are that the system is easy to use, not time consuming, available and accessible whenever the college is open, and has original materials appropriate to the students' level. The system at William Rainey Harper College (Illinois) is organized into the three broad areas of reading, English, and mathematics. Each area is set up by major skills or content areas. Of the three general content areas, the English writing skills area is used to the greatest extent, then mathematics, and finally reading. (More detailed information on organization is provided.) Maintenance depends upon the general cooperation of the teaching staff and upon one individual who oversees other needs of the system. (Responsibilities and other roles of the Materials Specialist are discussed. Appendixes include complete lists of major file headings and materials selection criteria.) (YLB)

Children with ADHD comprise one of the most common groups requiring supports from school mental health providers, yet current school structures and special education policies are not optimally situated to support and adapt to the inconsistent behaviors that are the hallmark of children with ADHD. The present paper reviews the evidence base for school mental health interventions for children with ADHD across the preschool, elementary, and middle/high school levels. The preponderance of evidence across meta-analyses, systematic reviews, and practice guidelines support classroom contingency management strategies, with emerging evidence supporting adjunctive training in organizational skills and homework supports. Behavioral parent training is also a supported intervention, but relatively few attempts have been made to evaluate it when integrated into school environments. A comprehensive, integrated approach for treating ADHD in school settings across universal, targeted, and indicated tiers is presented, providing an initial outline of a framework for school mental health treatment that could be utilized by school mental health practitioners. [This paper was published in "School Mental Health" v11 p72-91 2019.]