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The focus-group interview format was used to investigate the implementation of the Career Ladders teacher-incentive program in a rural school district in Arizona. Two interviews were planned for each of the following groups: (1) school board members; (2) Career Ladders steering committee; (3) administrators; (4) central office staff; (5) parents; (6) Career Ladder teachers; and (7) non-Career Ladder teachers. Despite the diversity of the seven focus groups, their comments yielded some common themes about the Career Ladder program. The most dominant was a perceived overall lack of district readiness to adopt a program of the scope and magnitude of the Career Ladder program and a lack of needed organization. Related to this finding was the expressed need for an agreed-on curriculum. A separate focus group for the Career Ladders Pilot District Network served as a check on the internal validity of the conceptual structure being piloted in the district, and it defined concerns about program implementation. This group was far more positive in its evaluation of the developing Career Ladders program than were the school district focus groups. Follow-up interviews were conducted with five of the seven focus groups (parents and central staff could not be rescheduled). The focus group format is a powerful tool for validation of the theoretical model for program development by giving all groups a chance to express themselves. (SLD)

The focus-group interview format was used to investigate the implementation of the Career Ladders teacher-incentive program in a rural school district in Arizona. Two interviews were planned for each of the following groups: (1) school board members; (2) Career Ladders steering committee; (3) administrators; (4) central office staff; (5) parents; (6) Career Ladder teachers; and (7) non-Career Ladder teachers. Despite the diversity of the seven focus groups, their comments yielded some common themes about the Career Ladder program. The most dominant was a perceived overall lack of district readiness to adopt a program of the scope and magnitude of the Career Ladder program and a lack of needed organization. Related to this finding was the expressed need for an agreed-on curriculum. A separate focus group for the Career Ladders Pilot District Network served as a check on the internal validity of the conceptual structure being piloted in the district, and it defined concerns about program implementation. This group was far more positive in its evaluation of the developing Career Ladders program than were the school district focus groups. Follow-up interviews were conducted with five of the seven focus groups (parents and central staff could not be rescheduled). The focus group format is a powerful tool for validation of the theoretical model for program development by giving all groups a chance to express themselves. (SLD)

1Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

By Benjamin Franklin

Franklin wrote his autobiography in the form of an extended letter to his son. While recording the events of his life, he adds instructions for good living which makes this work America’s first “How to Succeed” book. Edited by Frank Woodworth Pine (1869-1919). (Summary by Gary)

2What Prohibition Has Done to America

By Fabian Franklin

In <i>What Prohibition Has Done to America</i>, Fabian Franklin presents a concise but forceful argument against the Eighteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Beginning in 1920, this Amendment prohibited the sale and manufacture of alcoholic beverages in the United States, until it was repealed in 1933. Franklin contends that the Amendment "is not only a crime against the Constitution of the United States, and not only a crime against the whole spirit of our Federal system, but a crime against the first principles of rational government." Writing only two years after Prohibition began, he correctly predicts many of its disastrous consequences, such as runaway bootlegging and organized crime. The book is both a passionate defense of liberty, and a reminder to Americans of the perils of surrendering it. (Summary by Leon Mire)

3My Brilliant Career

By Miles Franklin

Sybella: "There is no plot in this story, because there has been none in my life or in any other life which has come under my notice. I am one of a class, the individuals of which have no time for plots in their life, but have all they can do to get their work done without indulging in such a luxury". Like the author Miles Franklin, Sybella grows up in the bush, and as her family's fortunes decline, so her feelings rise that life should hold more for her than the relentless hard physical work farming marginal land in times of drought. (Summary by Annise)

As a teenager, Benjamin Franklin apprenticed with his brother James at the shop where The New-England Courant was printed. Since James would not publish any of Benjamin's works, fifteen-year-old Benjamin sent letters to The New England Courant under the pseudonym Silence Dogood. A total of fourteen letters were sent, one each fortnight, between April and December of 1722. (Introduction by Darcy Smittenaar)

5Some Everyday Folk and Dawn

By Miles Franklin

It is 1904 and women's suffrage has hit the small town of Noonoon. Though the election campaigners preen themselves for the women's vote, the fight isn't entirely won, for the male residents are bristling at this threat to their supremacy. And down at Clay's there are other problems too: Dawn is now a young woman and in these days of slender chances Grandma Clay must keep an eye on the marriage market. But Dawn, lively and outspoken wants a career on the stage. - Summary by Trove - National Library of Australia

A brief biographical sketch of Franklin's life, followed by a collection (published in 1899) of 670 aphorisms, apothegms, or proverbs - short, pithy, instructive sayings - that were scattered throughout the pages of his Poor Richard's Almanack over its 25 years of once-a-year publication (1732-1758). Many of these sayings are familiar to all . . . "a penny saved is a penny earned" . . . "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" . . . but there are many more for you to laugh at, ponder over and learn from! Most were not invented by him, but these little gems of wisdom Franklin gleaned from all over the world are what made his Almanack so wildly popular, and himself a wealthy man. - Summary by Michele Fry, Soloist

7Rat Race

By Jay Franklin

When an atomic explosion destroys the battleship Alaska, Lt. Commander Frank Jacklin returns to consciousness in New York and is shocked to find himself in the body of Winnie Tompkins, a dissolute stock-broker. Unable to explain his real identity, Jacklin attempts to fit into Tompkins' way of life. Complications develop when Jacklin gets involved with Tompkins' wife, his red-haired mistress and his luscious secretary. Three too many women for Jacklin to handle. His foreknowledge of the Alaska sinking and other top secret matters plunges him into a mad world of intrigue and excitement in Washington—that place where anything can happen and does! Where is the real Tompkins is a mystery explained in the smashing climax. Completely delightful, wholly provocative, the Rat Race is a striking novel of the American Scene. - Summary by Book Intro

8Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (Version 2)

By Benjamin Franklin

In Benjamin Franklin's lifetime, he kept good record of his life and travels, and although Franklin was never a president, he still plays a crucial part in our American history. (Summary by Elijah Fisher)