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INTRODUCTION
The last three
decades have seen several major initiatives in the field of educational
reform.
In the late
1960s, research into effective schools suggested that every
school could improve educational quality for all its students, including
poor and minority children, by incorporating a set of basic, research-identified
characteristics present in successful schools.
In the 1980s,
a wave of educational reforms focused debate around high school
graduation requirements, student testing, accountability, teacher
standards, student and school district standards, and policy changes
at the school level.
In addition,
much has been written in recent years on improving the educational
performance of children with physical, emotional and other kinds
of learning disabilities and children from "at-risk" or
"high-risk" environments.
Out of all the
literature arising from these reform movements have come several
common, basic teaching strategies and learning settings which have
proven successful in raising the performance level of all school
children in general and of children from poor and minority environments
in particular. The concepts which follow summarize these findings.
The major research
tool used for this study was the ERIC (Educational Resources Information
Center) database. Two documents were useful as format organizers:
What works: research about teaching and learning, published
by the US Department of Education in 1987, and Handbook of research
on improving student achievement, edited by Gordon Cawelti and
published by the Educational Research Service in 1995.
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