This book describes an initiative that has proved effective in keeping more young people from dropping out of education, training or employment. The authors present case studies based on in-depth interviews with participants from five widely divergent European countries--the UK, Spain, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Ireland--which illustrate the…

Our research examines the effectiveness of intake variables used by a Canadian post-degree teacher education program over the period of 3 years to select candidates for entry into the program. Using a mixed-methods approach, we compared intake variables (grade point average, written response, work experience, reference letters, academic…

"You Can't Be What You Can't See" presents a rare longitudinal account of the benefits of a high-quality, out-of-school program on the life trajectories of hundreds of poor, African American youth who grew up in Chicago's notorious Cabrini-Green housing project in the 1980s and early '90s. The result of a five-year research project by…

In this book the author explores the work and living experiences of Confucius Institute Chinese teachers (CICTs) in the United Kingdom, how they interpret and make sense of their sojourning experience, and how this context and the wider globalised social environment have impacted on their understandings and their personal growth. Because of their…

In "Character Compass," Scott Seider offers portraits of three high-performing urban schools in Boston, Massachusetts that have made character development central to their mission of supporting student success, yet define character in three very different ways. One school focuses on students' moral character development, another…

Over the last decade, teaching assistants (TAs) have become an established part of everyday classroom life. TAs are often used by schools to help low-attaining pupils and those with special educational needs. Yet despite the huge rise in the number of TAs working in UK classrooms, very little is known about their impact on pupils. This key and…

In 1988, the Chicago public school system decentralized, granting parents and communities significant resources and authority to reform their schools in dramatic ways. To track the effects of this bold experiment, the authors of "Organizing Schools for Improvement" collected a wealth of data on elementary schools in Chicago. Over a…

This book offers a clear-eyed and balanced analysis of for-profit colleges and universities (FPCUs), reviewing their history, business strategies, and management practices; setting them in the context of marketplace conditions, the framework of public policy and government regulations; and viewing them in the light of the public good. Individual…

In this important resource, Dr. Fleming (a noted expert in the field of minority retention) draws on educational evaluations she has developed in the course of her distinguished career. This book analyzes the common factors and the role institutional characteristics play in minority student retention to show what really works in increasing…

The main aim of the study is to explore the role of self-assessment in EFL learning in developing lifelong language learning skills and in furthering the development of more comprehensive and thereby fairer assessment practices. The study explores how students perceived their own general and specific writing abilities in relation to syllabus goals…

Fewer employees, shorter hours, diminished collection budgets, reduced programs and services--all at a time of record library usage. In this book, library expert Carol Smallwood demonstrates that despite the obvious downsides, the necessity of doing business differently can be positive, leading to partnering, sharing, and innovating. This…

Offering a primer on action research methodologies and examples of practice, "Students in Transition: Research and Practice in Career Development" responds to a dual challenge facing career development educators--designing cutting-edge career development interventions and demonstrating their effectiveness. Overviews of quantitative and qualitative…

Scratch the surface of any successful organization and readers will likely find systems designed to evaluate how well it runs. The approach to evaluation presented in this book can be applied in a variety of contexts, but the focus here is on the evaluation of leadership development initiatives. Effective evaluations keep leadership development…

This book reports on a national study of the master's degree, how people involved view their experiences, development of a typology of four "idealized" program types, and identification of characteristics associated with positive master's experiences. The study used an open-ended, multicase design grounded in interviews with 781 individuals…

Principals play an important role in the success of externally funded change projects in their schools. Interviews exploring the participation of principals in such projects in 14 Oregon elementary and secondary schools provided 11 case studies illustrating helpful and unhelpful behaviors. The projects were found to have life cycles of their own,…