This guide was created to help district leaders understand the benefits and drawbacks of the four-day school week, assess their district's readiness to make the switch, and evaluate the results of implementing the new schedule. This guide begins with an overview of common goals and outcomes for the four-day school week. It then provides a set of…

The "Value-Added School Review (VSR)" is an analytical model designed to assist schools in identifying and addressing opportunities for school improvement. The model works best when it is focused purposefully on students and the student learning outcomes as defined in the "Guide to Education". It complements the processes…

Intended for those groups contemplating the establishment of any type of literacy services within a community, this resource is designed to help in the analysis of both the need for literacy services within the community and the currently available resources for meeting that need. Five steps are recommended to identify clearly both the needs and…

This workbook is designed to help communities and program administrators assess the success of their Title V delinquency prevention programs, but it may serve as an evaluation tool for other prevention efforts as well. It provides information and resource aids on program planning, conducting evaluations, tracking programs, describing activities,…

The interim findings of a citizen commission charged with monitoring the implementation of the Chicago (Illinois) Public School desegregation plan are presented. The first of four sections of the report describes the context for the monitoring effort, including legal suits against the school systems in the 1960s and the events and legal decisions…

A model and supportive materials are presented for design and implementation of a program for involving citizens in decision-making concerning significant environmental issues. Chapter topics include: why citizen involvement? (potential benefits of the process); theoretical basis for citizen involvement (three fundamental perspectives underlying…

Student assessment, from the classroom to the state and national levels, is changing. The era of norm-referenced, multiple choice, standardized tests may be coming to an end, to be replaced by other forms of assessment, not all equally good. This guide outlines a vision of what assessment in the service of learning can be and provides ideas,…

Based on a program conducted by Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute, Hudson, North Carolina, this handbook provides guidelines and suggestions for developing a workplace literacy program. The handbook is organized in four sections. The first section introduces the idea of developing a workplace literacy program, including…

Manual I describes the VIDEOSHARE Project, a demonstration project employing systematic, video-based technology in preschool special education classrooms to supplement traditional measures of academic and developmental progress. The VIDEOSHARE model focuses on using video to: (1) enhance family-school partnerships; (2) increase child study team…

This manual is intended to assist volunteers and staff of volunteer organizations in the design of projects in various community and social service areas. The first section of the manual is a guidebook that addresses such aspects of the planning, implementation, and evaluation process as situational analysis, needs assessment, task-oriented…