Electronic publishing: trends and responsive strategies

Corporate publishing organizations face a major practical task in deploying electronic publishing systems (EPS), with little strategic guidance. In response, this discussion focuses on large-scale trends at work in electronic publishing, their impact in a corporate environment, and strategies to address those trends. Specifically, the discussion begins by defining electronic publishing; continues with trends affecting document workflow, components of a situation analysis, and three potential organizational responses to the situation; and ends with a responsive strategy to compete for business in five dimensions: cost, convenience, timeliness, quality, and capability. Jay E. Gillette has worked as a senior technical planner at Bellcore since 1987. Previously he was a consultant in documentation and technical planning and served on the technical communication and humanities faculty of the Colorado School of Mines. He holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of California, Berkeley.     

Science instruction at the secondary level: implications for students with learning disabilities

Designing appropriate content area instruction for secondary students with learning disabilities is a challenging endeavor. Even if these students are mainstreamed into algebra, history, or science classes, special educators are likely to expect only a minimal grasp of the material. To go beyond this, to teach higher order thinking through these subjects, would be regarded by most practitioners as too labor-intensive. The authors of this article argue that, through a comprehensive revision of traditional materials, secondary students with learning disabilities can learn content area subjects--earth science and introductory chemistry, particularly--in an integrated manner. These students can achieve a firm understanding of the subject, as well as learn how to solve complex, domain-specific problems. For this kind of integrated instruction to be feasible, the curriculum must be designed and field-tested by professional curriculum developers.     

Theory Testing, Effect-Size Evaluation, and Differential Susceptibility to Rearing Influence: The Case of Mothering and Attachment

It is important to distinguish theory testing from effect-size evaluation when considering the impact of mothering on attachment security discerned in the De Wolff and van Ijzendoorn meta-analysis. Moreover, the possibility exists that this analysis both over- and underestimates mothering effects, as would be the case if infants vary in their susceptibility to rearing influence.     

On the Subject of English

Assiduous readers of English for Ages 5 to 16 may remember that, in their introductory section, Professor Cox's Working Group identify five "views" of the role of English in the curriculum: "cultural heritage", "personal growth", "cultural analysis", "adult needs", and "cross-curricular". In this article, Jay Snow discusses these views, relating them to the history of English and to its potential future development.     

Assessing the Assessments of Teacher Preparation

Teacher preparation programs have both a desire and a responsibility to demonstrate, with affirmative evidence, that teacher education makes a difference in PreK–12 student learning. Program faculty need good data to make decisions about the progress of students, whom to recommend for state licensure, and how to improve teacher education. This article describes an American Psychological Association task force report that discusses 3 measures of program effectiveness that have potential for both informing the public and providing useful data for programs to continuously improve: (a) outcome data from PreK–12 student academic growth as assessed by standardized tests; (b) teacher performance as evaluated by valid and reliable observational instruments; and (c) judgments of graduates, their PreK–12 students, and those who hire teachers as gauged by surveys. Although no technique of data collection and analysis is perfect, this report provides directions for teacher educators who seek to continuously improve their programs.