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A new Yes Yes No, plus Sruthi meets her first fully-functional cyborg. Further Reading Norm Kelly's Twitter Eric Valor's Website Eric's non-profit Sciopen Research Group

Three New York City public school projects funded by the New York State Education Department's Bureau of Bilingual Education had the common goal of improving the quality of instruction in schools that the state's Comprehensive Assessment Report (CAR) had designated as needing special assistance for raising low student performance levels. The Language Development Support Systems (LDSS) provided instruction in computer literacy and English as a Second Language (ESL) to third through sixth grade unentitled language minority students at one Bronx and one Manhattan public school, and in-service training to teachers who served pupils in these schools. This project was delayed by theft of equipment. The project did not meet the student achievement objective, and met only one staff development objective. The Intensive Second Language Development for CAR Schools provided citywide workshops for ESL coordinators, special education coordinators, and curriculum/instructional personnel at CAR schools and, by request, workshops for classroom teachers. This project was fully implemented and met its staff development objective. The Curriculum Development Project used the services of a linguist to update and revise previously-written curriculum guides. This project could not be fully assessed. Recommendations for improvement include provision of adequate storage and work space and additional security measures for the LDSS program. (MSE)

A study of the English as a Second Language (ESL) program at Miami-Dade Community College (MDCC) was conducted, which compared the demographics of ESL and non-ESL students, measured the success of ESL students in learning English and achieving other academic goals, and examined the relationship between initial enrollment in ESL and satisfactorily completing the program, passing the communications portion of a basic skills assessment test, and success/persistence in college. The study sample included all students who enrolled at MDCC for the first time in fall 1983 with the intention of obtaining an associate degree (N=6,993). Any student who had earned or attempted one or more credits in an ESL course (N=884) were assigned to the ESL group. Study findings included the following: (1) about 1 in 8 of the total group of first-time enrollees earned a high school diploma from a foreign high school, including 65% of the ESL group and 6% of the non-ESL group; (2) 52% of the new enrollees were Hispanic and 17% were Black, while in the ESL group, 82% were Hispanic and 11% were Black; (3) ESL students tended to be older than their counterparts (27.6 vs. 20.4 years); (4) compared to the non-ESL students, ESL students were more likely to have left MDCC after 4 years and less likely to have graduated; (5) 16% of the ESL enrollees finished the fourth level of the program with satisfactory grades; and (6) less than 30% of the original ESL group passed the reading and writing portions of the basic skills assessment test. (EJV)

"October, 1987."