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Research was conducted to assess the role of staff development in improving the quality of computer-based instruction in grade K-12 schools. The sample consisted of contact persons in 171 districts and interviews were completed with 155 (91%). Results indicate 80% of these districts currently provide inservice computer training to teachers; the median amount available is 25 hours. Most also provide technical assistance to teachers with hardware problems (95%), locating and evaluating courseware (80%), and integrating the microcomputer into the curriculum (65%). The median number of microcomputers found in these districts is 35, or a ratio of two microcomputers per five teachers and three microcomputers per 100 students. Incentives for participation in computer inservice training are not common: the most common are commendations or publicity (47%), release time for classes (41%), salary credit (36%), and guaranteed access to microcomputers (35%). The most important incentive was among those least commonly found in this sample--a guarantee of computer access. It was found that traditional incentives dispensed by administrators to teachers have little effect in fostering teacher involvement with computers and distinctions between "extrinsic" incentives such as salary credit and "intrinsic" incentives such as professional recognition did not prove to be conceptually or empirically important. A bibliography is appended. (JB)

1Boy Crusoe

By Allan Eric

Also published as" A Yankee Crusoe" . A 15 year old hard working and studious farm boy finds the lure of adventure on the seas as a merchant seaman more than he can resist. This is his story. " I was born in a little town in the State of Maine, near the close of the Civil War. My boyhood life did not differ materially from that of the average farmer's son in the remote country districts of New England--except, perhaps, that I read more and thought more. Hard work on the rugged soil, two terms each year in the little yellow country schoolhouse, a day's fishing now and then filled the early years of my life full to over-flowing. " What he gets is enough excitement and adventure to overflow his wildest dreams. How he experiences disaster and uses his wits and knowledge to overcome every problem makes for a great read. - Summary by Phil Chenevert