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In-depth interviews were conducted with five human service professionals who worked in a community-based residential group home for developmentally disabled adults. The interviewing process used a phenomenological approach which focused on the perceptions of the human service professionals. "Perceptions" relate to the personal interpretations and evaluations that the human service professionals made of their work experiences. The interview process consisted of three ninety-minute interviews with each participant. The first interview centered around the question, "How did you come to work as a human service professional?" The second interview focused upon the question, "What is it like for you to work at a community-based residential group home for developmentally disabled adults?" And the third interview asked, "What does deinstitutionalization mean to you?" The interviews were audio-recorded and later transcribed. After significant transcript material had been identified, it was then synthesized in two ways: first, as profiles of the participants; and second, as excerpts from the interviews which were woven together with emergent themes that connected the experiences of the participants. Seven themes relative to their experiences at the community-based residential group home emerged from the data. The seven emergent themes that evolved from the data were: (1) Are private sector community-based group homes for the developmentally disabled adult truly independent, or are they a cleverly disguised extension of state government? (2) Community-based group homes, unlike the large state institutions, should impress family and community values upon their clients. These values are critical to the healthy and productive independence of clients. (3) The quality of care is much better in community-based group homes than in large institutions. (4) Staff development and staff selection are critical to the success of the program. (5) Members of the public and family members of some clients resent the good quality of life that the clients have. (6) Community-based group homes have a positive economic impact upon the local community and that fosters positive integration into the community. (7) Can a community-based program such as ours, which is driven by the needs of the clients, maintain its unique identity and philosophy?

Human service agencies are charged with the responsibility of providing care to those who are in need. Care recipients represent all walks of life. However, those who provide the services are not reflective of those they serve. This study focuses on affirmative action training and its effect at a selected facility of a human services agency. There is a general notion that racism and discrimination have contributed to the lack of minorities (particularly blacks) obtaining their fair share of positions of authority and influence. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts had directed all of its agencies to implement affirmative action in 1972. However, by 1989, this human service agency and the selected facility had not achieved their respective affirmative action goals. The search, in part, revealed that (1) the agency had to be subject to a Federal conciliation agreement to initiate its affirmative action activity six years after being directed to do so by the State; (2) the majority of blacks hired at the facility during the early 1980s were confined to entry-level paraprofessional and service maintenance jobs; and (3) the facility conducted its first and only comprehensive affirmative action training in 1989. The training was developed to provide key managers and supervisors with knowledge and awareness needed to fulfill the agency's mandate. Each training participant responded to a pre- and post-training attitudinal questionnaire and examination. Interviews were conducted with five randomly-selected trainees. Results indicate that: the agency has been slow and, in some cases, reluctant to implement the affirmative action mandate; the facility suffered from the residue of the agency's inactions; however, it has more recently demonstrated that affirmative action can be implemented successfully; and affirmative action training can be beneficial in enhancing knowledge of affirmative action while raising levels of sensitivity and awareness of key managers and supervisors.

American employers are concerned that our schools are continuing to produce an increasing number of graduates who are undereducated, unskilled, and unable to cope with the needs of business in this technological age. Schools are struggling to become accountable and must recognize the problems that affect the performance and success of students in and out of school. This study focuses on the perceptions that secondary school students have of the training they receive for entry-level positions, how it affects their performance, and its relationship to the perceptions/expectations and level of satisfaction of employers in the workplace. A Likert-style rating scale was used to measure the students' and businesses' perceptions of the secondary school training. One hundred eighty-students and twenty-eight businesses participated in the surveys. Data analysis included descriptive and inferential statistics--frequency distributions, measures of central tendency and dispersion, Pearson correlations, cross-tabulations, and chi-squares. Four specific research questions guided the study. The analysis of the data indicated that the majority of students show positive perceptions toward their school training for entry-level positions. However, variables such as gender, grade level, ethnic background, academic achievement, and employment status influenced the perceptions held by students. There was a significant and positive relationship between students' academic achievement and their overall perceptions of their school academic training. A large proportion of the participating businesses showed negative perceptions toward the secondary school training for entry-level positions in the workplace. Variable factors such as in-service training and type of product produced influenced the businesses' perceptions. While businesses were satisfied with some aspects of the school training, the overall majority expressed dissatisfaction with such training and complained about spending thousands of dollars annually for in-service training. Data from the study indicate that indeed there is a mismatch between the training students receive in school and the skills needed for successful entry-level employment. The researcher supports the recommendation offered by both students and businesses that School-Business partnerships are needed for improvement of student training and their success in the workplace.

Considerable research has addressed the problem of poor student achievement in basic accounting courses as evidenced by low grades and high drop out rates. Much of this research focused on (1) changing the environment of instruction from the traditional classroom lecture setting to an individualized setting, or by (2) manipulating the elements of instruction within the lecture setting, for example, test frequency. The results of this research were largely inconclusive. Believing that the way the information is structured in traditional courses and texts contributes to its difficulty of learning, this research focused on a teaching approach which relied on a restructured form of this information to teach basic accounting. A two dimensional model of the whole accounting cycle process was created from the information found in traditional courses and texts. An approach was developed which used this model or "big picture" to teach the accounting cycle material. A test was conducted comparing the Restructured Information (RI) Approach with the Traditional Structure Approach to determine its effect on students' achievement and attitudes. Two groups of community college students were involved in the test, one taught using the (RI) Approach (experimental) and the other taught using the Traditional Structure Approach (control). Achievement was measured by test scores and course grades. Attitudes were compared for the experience of learning, how students felt about the accounting learned, and the value put on learning it. The experimental students scored significantly higher on the test most related to the accounting cycle. The remaining test scores were equivalent between the two groups. The experimental students achieved higher course grades than the control students but not significantly. There were no significant differences between the two groups on the attitudinal questions. Overall, the experimental students were quite positive about the (RI) Approach. Several groups were more positive than others. Students with no previous accounting instruction achieved significantly higher grades and were significantly more positive than students with previous accounting. It appeared this latter group experienced frustration when being required to relearn the accounting cycle material in a different way. Older students were significantly more positive about the (RI) Approach than younger students.

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No description available.

No description available.

No description available.