The classical understanding of the term acceleration is progress through an educational program at a rate faster, or at an age younger, than conventional. This is now referred to, more appropriately, as academic acceleration and is based on the premise that each child has a right to realize his or her potential.
Academic acceleration is valid pedagogy, is grounded in and supported by research, and is an appropriate response to the educational and social needs of a student whose cognitive ability and academic achievement are several years beyond those of their age-peers. Yet worldwide it is an educational option little used. Even though the research on acceleration is so uniformly and distinctly positive and the benefits of well-administered acceleration are so unequivocal, educators are reluctant to accelerate children, and some educational systems proscribe its transparent use.
This entry presents an outline of current theory of academic acceleration through a discussion of a curriculum for gifted students, the benefits of acceleration, a model for acceleration, guidelines for implementing an acceleration program, and ongoing issues related to the practice of acceleration.
Curriculum for Gifted Students
The literature is adamant: Gifted students are exceptional students who have three basic educational needs. They require the provision of a curriculum that is substantially and qualitatively differentiated; that is prescribed, planned, articulated, permanent, ongoing, and defensible; that is based on students' exceptionality; and that is predicated on the needs of each student. Gifted students require accelerated, enriched, and challenging learning experiences, with carefully planned, relevant enrichment and with content acceleration to the level of each student's ability. They also require counseling and guidance to foster cognitive and affective growth. Whereas most teachers and researchers involved with the education of gifted students agree that gifted students do require a differentiated curriculum, there is passionate debate concerning the form that this provision should take.
Counseling certainly is important for the social and emotional development of the gifted student and should be part of the framework for any program devised for gifted students.
Academic enrichment is worthwhile for most students and should not be offered to gifted students only. Relevant academic enrichment requires the provision of a program specifically designed for the individual. For gifted students, this will naturally entail advanced material and higher-level treatment of topics within their area of special aptitude, and the more relevant and excellent the enrichment is, the more it calls for acceleration of subject matter or grade placement later. Indeed, acceleration may well be the most appropriate form of enrichment.
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The notion of academic acceleration is evidently contentious, with an enormous hiatus existing between what research has revealed and what most practitioners believe and do. The literature uniformly emphasizes that academic acceleration should form an integral component of a school's program for gifted students, complementing enrichment programs and provisions and following relevant enrichment. Resistance to academic acceleration, especially through concerns for the social and emotional development of the accelerated student, is not grounded in research. Clearly, educators need to be aware of the empirical research on the positive effects of academic acceleration. Moreover, the literature carefully points out that academic acceleration appears to be the best and most feasible method for providing a challenging, rewarding, and ongoing education that matches a gifted student's academic and intellectual ability and comes closest to meeting his or her educational, social, and emotional needs.
Whatever the status of the debate, if service delivery is predicated on a gifted student's precocious development and educational needs, then a differentiated curriculum should be challenging and educationally relevant and should be adapted by acceleration, enrichment, sophistication, and novelty. Such an eclectic approach to programming for the gifted will be employed within an integrative framework, adaptable to the cognitive and affective needs of the individual.
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The issue may be placed in perspective by cor-rectly noticing that a gifted student is already accelerated and that what is accelerated through academic acceleration is simply the student's progress through the formal school curriculum. The key point is that matching the curriculum to the student's abilities is not acceleration per se, but rather it is a developmentally appropriate teaching practice.
EDITOR Neil J. Salkind
Copyright © 2008 by SAGE Publications, Inc.
Showing posts with label Online Degree Program. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Online Degree Program. Show all posts
Friday, September 4, 2009
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Abstinence Education pt.2 - Federal Funding
The first federal funding of abstinence programs was created in 1981 with the Adolescent Family Life Act as Title XX of the Public Health Service Act. According to the Office of Adolescent Pregnancy Programs, the Adolescent Family Life (AFL) program supports demonstration projects to develop, implement, and evaluate program interventions to promote abstinence from sexual activity among adolescents and to provide comprehensive health care, education, and social services to pregnant and parenting adolescents.
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The program supports two basic types of demonstration projects: (1) prevention demonstration projects to develop, test, and use curricula that provide education and activities designed to encourage adolescents to postpone sexual activity until marriage; and (2) care demonstration projects to develop interventions with pregnant and parenting teens, their infants, male partners, and family members in an effort to ameliorate the effects of too-early-childbearing for teen parents, their babies, and their families. The AFL program also funds grants to support research on the causes and consequences of adolescent premarital sexual relations, pregnancy, and parenting. The Title XX funds not only help the teens and families they serve directly, but they also provide valuable information and evaluation findings that can serve as a basis for future strategies. Every program that receives AFL grant funds is required to include an independent evaluation component. This ensures that the lessons learned by each community will benefit others in the future.
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In 1996, federal abstinence education programs narrowed the definitions of abstinence when Section 510(b) of Title V of the Social Security Act, P.L. 104-193 was signed into law by President Bill Clinton. The abstinence-only federal funding was created as part of "welfare reform," or the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Act (TANF). This third funding stream provides grants to states for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. The absti-nence-only-until-marriage educational or motivational programs must adhere to the following eight criteria as established by law:
1. Has as its exclusive purpose teaching the social,
psychological, and health gains to be realized by
abstaining from sexual activity
2. Teaches abstinence from sexual activity outside
marriage as the expected standard for all school-age children
3. Teaches that abstinence from sexual activity is the
only certain way to avoid out-of-wedlock pregnancy, sexually
transmitted diseases, and other associated health problems
4. Teaches that a mutually faithful monogamous relationship
in the context of marriage is the expected standard of sexual activity
5. Teaches that sexual activity outside of the context
of marriage is likely to have harmful psychological
and physical effects
6. Teaches that bearing children out-of-wedlock is
likely to have harmful consequences for the child,
the child's parents, and society
7. Teaches young people how to reject sexual
advances and how alcohol and drug use increases
vulnerability to sexual advances
8. Teaches the importance of attaining self-sufficiency
before engaging in sexual activity
As of 1997, all abstinence projects funded under the Office of Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention must adhere to the eight criteria. The funded projects must be evaluated, and the curricula must be medically accurate.
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Title V grantees cannot provide educational programming that goes against any one of the criteria listed previously in this section, but the states have the latitude to focus on only a few of the criteria. The states can direct the funding to schools, community-based organizations, health districts, media campaigns, or faith-based entities. Each state has the discretion to decide who receives the funding, how programs are delivered, and if and how they will be evaluated.
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In October 2000, the federal government expanded the abstinence-only projects and created Special Projects of Regional and National Significance-Community-Based Abstinence Education (SPRANS-CBAE). The SPRANS grants are awarded to states and community organizations and can fund only abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. In 2005 oversight of the SPRANS-CBAE grants was moved from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau to the Adminis-tration for Children and Families (ACF); both are within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). This program is now known as Community-Based Abstinence Education (CBAE). The program requirements have been tightened; to receive funding, each program now must adhere to all eight criteria. Process evaluation is now required for new grantees, but programs do not have to measure impact on program participants. So how does one select an abstinence program?
Online College Degree
Selecting and Evaluating Programs
Abstinence education programs are evolving, and the types of programs offered are vast in terms of quality, cost, and effectiveness. When choosing a program, educators can look for teacher training, medical accuracy, evidence of effectiveness with similar populations, costs, whether the program is theoretically based, and how it fits with community guidelines. Other considerations include whether the program is taught by a teacher or peers and how much time can be devoted to the program. Programs can range from a single 1-hour presentation to 25 sessions over 5 weeks. The curricula and desired learning outcomes should coincide. A final component is the effectiveness of the program; currently, long-term research on the effectiveness of abstinence education is limited to a few programs, and the results are mixed.
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Few rigorous, long-term studies focusing on behavioral outcomes have been conducted on specific abstinence-only programs. The Office of Adolescent Pregnancy Programs (OAPP) does require all of its abstinence programs to be evaluated, and most of the published abstinence evaluations are former OAPP projects. Most of the programs have shown immediate differences in attitudes and intent to remain abstinent. One problem with the evaluations of many abstinence programs is the limited ability to assign students to experimental or control groups, the presence of follow-up evaluations, and the limited sample sizes.
Research is needed to determine the long-term impacts on behavior.
Caile E. Spear
EDITOR Neil J. Salkind
Copyright © 2008 by SAGE Publications, Inc.
Online College Degree
The program supports two basic types of demonstration projects: (1) prevention demonstration projects to develop, test, and use curricula that provide education and activities designed to encourage adolescents to postpone sexual activity until marriage; and (2) care demonstration projects to develop interventions with pregnant and parenting teens, their infants, male partners, and family members in an effort to ameliorate the effects of too-early-childbearing for teen parents, their babies, and their families. The AFL program also funds grants to support research on the causes and consequences of adolescent premarital sexual relations, pregnancy, and parenting. The Title XX funds not only help the teens and families they serve directly, but they also provide valuable information and evaluation findings that can serve as a basis for future strategies. Every program that receives AFL grant funds is required to include an independent evaluation component. This ensures that the lessons learned by each community will benefit others in the future.
Tags: Online Degree, Online Degrees, Online College Degrees, Online Accredited Degrees, Online Bachelor Degree, Online College Degree, Phd Degree Online, Online Masters Degree, Online Computer Science Degree, Online Nursing Degree, Nursing Degree Online, Online Accounting Degree, Online Education College Degree
In 1996, federal abstinence education programs narrowed the definitions of abstinence when Section 510(b) of Title V of the Social Security Act, P.L. 104-193 was signed into law by President Bill Clinton. The abstinence-only federal funding was created as part of "welfare reform," or the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Act (TANF). This third funding stream provides grants to states for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. The absti-nence-only-until-marriage educational or motivational programs must adhere to the following eight criteria as established by law:
1. Has as its exclusive purpose teaching the social,
psychological, and health gains to be realized by
abstaining from sexual activity
2. Teaches abstinence from sexual activity outside
marriage as the expected standard for all school-age children
3. Teaches that abstinence from sexual activity is the
only certain way to avoid out-of-wedlock pregnancy, sexually
transmitted diseases, and other associated health problems
4. Teaches that a mutually faithful monogamous relationship
in the context of marriage is the expected standard of sexual activity
5. Teaches that sexual activity outside of the context
of marriage is likely to have harmful psychological
and physical effects
6. Teaches that bearing children out-of-wedlock is
likely to have harmful consequences for the child,
the child's parents, and society
7. Teaches young people how to reject sexual
advances and how alcohol and drug use increases
vulnerability to sexual advances
8. Teaches the importance of attaining self-sufficiency
before engaging in sexual activity
As of 1997, all abstinence projects funded under the Office of Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention must adhere to the eight criteria. The funded projects must be evaluated, and the curricula must be medically accurate.
Online Bachelor Degree
Title V grantees cannot provide educational programming that goes against any one of the criteria listed previously in this section, but the states have the latitude to focus on only a few of the criteria. The states can direct the funding to schools, community-based organizations, health districts, media campaigns, or faith-based entities. Each state has the discretion to decide who receives the funding, how programs are delivered, and if and how they will be evaluated.
Tags: Online Degree Program, Online Health Care Degree, Online College Degree Programs, College Degree Distance Education Online, Online Course College Degree, Online Pharmacy Degree, University Online Degrees, Online College Bachelor Degree, Online College Degree Distance Education, Online Course And College Degree, Pharmacy Degree Online, School Online College Degree Distance Education
In October 2000, the federal government expanded the abstinence-only projects and created Special Projects of Regional and National Significance-Community-Based Abstinence Education (SPRANS-CBAE). The SPRANS grants are awarded to states and community organizations and can fund only abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. In 2005 oversight of the SPRANS-CBAE grants was moved from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau to the Adminis-tration for Children and Families (ACF); both are within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). This program is now known as Community-Based Abstinence Education (CBAE). The program requirements have been tightened; to receive funding, each program now must adhere to all eight criteria. Process evaluation is now required for new grantees, but programs do not have to measure impact on program participants. So how does one select an abstinence program?
Online College Degree
Selecting and Evaluating Programs
Abstinence education programs are evolving, and the types of programs offered are vast in terms of quality, cost, and effectiveness. When choosing a program, educators can look for teacher training, medical accuracy, evidence of effectiveness with similar populations, costs, whether the program is theoretically based, and how it fits with community guidelines. Other considerations include whether the program is taught by a teacher or peers and how much time can be devoted to the program. Programs can range from a single 1-hour presentation to 25 sessions over 5 weeks. The curricula and desired learning outcomes should coincide. A final component is the effectiveness of the program; currently, long-term research on the effectiveness of abstinence education is limited to a few programs, and the results are mixed.
Online Accredited Degree
Few rigorous, long-term studies focusing on behavioral outcomes have been conducted on specific abstinence-only programs. The Office of Adolescent Pregnancy Programs (OAPP) does require all of its abstinence programs to be evaluated, and most of the published abstinence evaluations are former OAPP projects. Most of the programs have shown immediate differences in attitudes and intent to remain abstinent. One problem with the evaluations of many abstinence programs is the limited ability to assign students to experimental or control groups, the presence of follow-up evaluations, and the limited sample sizes.
Research is needed to determine the long-term impacts on behavior.
Caile E. Spear
EDITOR Neil J. Salkind
Copyright © 2008 by SAGE Publications, Inc.
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