The authors provide a comprehensive model for planning, implementing, and maintaining an institutional effort to re cruit and maintain minority students in teacher education programs. Significant factors in planning a recruitment pro gram and suggestions for making the recruitment model institution-specific are discussed. Activities are suggested for each of the eight functions in the model.
The factorial validity of a 55 item instrument designed for use in a recently desegregated school district to assess staff needs as a basis for training was investigated. The instrument was designed to help determine needs in five areas: (1) multicultural awareness, (2) instructional leadership, (3) discipline strategies, (4) communication skills, and (5) instructional strategies. It was administered to 204 elementary school teachers and principals from the district. In a principal components factor analysis of the intercorrelation of item responses followed by varimax rotation, five empirical factors were identified which correspond to the five hypothesized categories of items. Therefore, the instrument appeared useful for determination of levels of five different needs, for training of school staff, and for assessment of the effectiveness of training programs intended to meet the five needs categories represented by the instrument. THE Desegregation Institute Needs Assessment (DINA) was designed for use in a school district which had undergone court-ordered merger of a large city school system with the surrounding suburban county school system. In addition to the merger, the districts were also ordered to end de facto segregation by using a district-wide busing plan. These two actions resulted in more cultural and racial heterogeneity than had previously been the case in classrooms. Three state universities collaborated to develop staff training to meet the needs of the faculty and administration which were raised by the two court orders. The DINA was designed to help determine faculty needs and then to evaluate the effectiveness of training provided to meet those needs.
This study describes a step in institution-specific program evaluation: the survey of a program's weaknesses as perceived by its graduates. Program graduates were asked to rate their competency in each of 25 areas, using a scale of 1 (great difficulty) to 5 (no problem). They were also requested to comment on the degree to which the program had prepared them for their position and to recommend needed changes via open-ended questions. The graduates surveyed seem to be experiencing the greatest difficulty in measuring, planning for, and dealing with individual differences. These findings suggest the need for new preservice training that emphasizes mainstreaming within the context of individual differences.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.