This ERIC digest looks at how college faculty can use cooperative learning principles to ensure that students actively create their own knowledge and work together to achieve shared learning goals. The first section describes cooperative learning and recommends training professors to apply an overall system to build cooperative activities,…

The heightened interest in college program review is traced to a widespread interest in improving educational quality and the need to respond creatively to financial constraints and external expectations for accountability. Current program reviews have also been designed to aid in decision making about resource reallocation and program…

Institutional self-study is an appropriate method for determining quality and demonstrating accountability which can lead to academic and administrative excellence. With a trend toward state and federal government involvement in higher education, colleges will do well to conduct internal program assessments in order to maintain control. A…

This digest summarizes in a question and answer format a full length report of the same title. It addresses the importance of recruiting minority students for diversity at institutions of higher education. Noted are increasing numbers for these groups along with the current low education levels found among minorities and the potential shortage of…

This brief report summarizes a longer document with the same title. It reviews how college faculty are increasingly collaborating to do much of their work. It notes that the two principal forms of collaboration, teaching and research, are often distinctive arrangements depending on the field of study, institutional environment, and task…

This brief report summarizes a longer report with the same title. It examines the problems of the increasingly severe shortage of qualified teachers in American higher education and the need to recruit large numbers of new faculty during the next decade and, as the potential solution to both problems, the recruiting of women to fill these faculty…

This digest addresses the special needs of gifted urban minority students in the selection of postsecondary career and educational options. Noted is the frequent lack of family encouragement in this population toward higher education and career achievement. Suggestions are offered for teachers, students, counselors, administrators, and parents.…

This digest, based on a larger report of the same title, summarizes principles for improving quality in higher education institutions. Emphasis is on the effect of the principles when they are used holistically to create a culture of academic excellence. The quality principles are based on the conceptual framework of total quality management (TQM)…

This ERIC digest examines the growth and nature of juvenile gangs and the growing problem they present in the nation's public schools. It explores the characteristics of gangs, the impact gangs are having on public schools, why gangs develop and why students join them, what the schools' responses have been to gangs, and effective interactions for…

This ERIC digest discusses meeting the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered school youth, i.e., supporting their ability to learn while maintaining an environment for them that is free from physical and psychological abuse. It describes the various policy initiatives protecting the rights of lesbian and gay students and indicates…

Factors that affect the attainment of a bachelor's degree by urban students are outlined. The demographic profile of American school children makes it clear that problems for urban colleges and universities will grow in the years ahead. There is a correlation between income and education achievement; low income students do not achieve, persist, or…

This digest examines ways in which learning and educational objectives can be maximized to achieve diversity while improving social and learning environments for students from different racial/ethnic backgrounds. The digest examines the literature on campus climate for racial/ethnic diversity, looks at the impact on student diversity of the campus…

This report is based on information obtained from a survey conducted by the ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education and provides a brief overview of the different programmatic approaches to bias reduction and violence prevention. The characteristics of the projects are discussed in terms of their underlying philosophy, the issues covered, training…

Poor, minority, and low ability students suffer most from the general lack of sustained opportunity to study mathematics in American public schools. Studies indicate that preschool and kindergarten students show only minor social class or racial differences in mathematical thinking and that differences in mathematical performance among older…