Completion by Design, an initiative sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, seeks to raise community college completion rates for large numbers of students while containing college costs, maintaining open access, and ensuring the quality of college programs and credentials. The goal of this guide is to assist community college…

As part of its work to advance the multiple pathways approach to high school education, the James Irvine Foundation engaged the Bridgespan Group to develop a framework for assessing the nature and needs of the fields in which nonprofits operate. These agents of change often struggle to understand how to focus their field-building investments and…

This guide is designed to help districts and schools evaluate reform efforts related to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), including School Improvement Grants. It includes practical, how-to tips for conducting program evaluations, whether one takes a "do-it-yourself" approach or seeks outside assistance to evaluate reform…

The professional development of teachers is seen as a key to improving instruction in mathematics. A position paper on Professional Development Programs for Teachers of Mathematics was endorsed by the Board of Directors of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics in April 1985, and this handbook provides suggestions for implementing the…

This book is designed for people interested in social marketing and who do not have much money. The book is not a tool kit, or a workbook, or a guide. It is a compilation of articles about issues, themes, definitions, and case studies from social marketing. Many of the articles originally appeared in "Social Marketing Quarterly." They…

This material is excerpted from the first book of the Addison-Wesley series on computers in education titled "Practical Guide to Computers in Education." Details on planning the physical setup, the question of access, providing the information needed, and establishing rules for computer use are presented as a guide. (MP)

Details about an investigation into the nature of the mathematics curriculum at the elementary level and suggestions about ways to improve existing programs are the focus of this material. It is noted that there appeared to be a great gulf between the type of instruction typically provided and the type viewed as the best possible to provide, with…

The purpose of the federally funded Title I program is to help disadvantaged students meet the same high academic standards expected of all children. The most recent reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) is the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. This education bill was enacted on January 8, 2002 and has established…

Proposes a model for writing program administrators to use to assess the effectiveness of composition programs. Argues the need to consider local conditions, evaluate the internal coherence of programs, and consider the external relevance of programs. Describes how using this model led the Writing Center at Northern Arizona University to make…

This paper provides school district administrators with a structured method for developing school programs aimed at reducing the risk of adolescent dropout. The methodology encompasses problem definition, fact finding, mission management, overcoming inertia, cohering programs tied to theory, feasible goal-setting, and normative personnel…

Consistent with educational reform efforts, the Quality Performance Assessment (QPA) Process Module was designed to disseminate information about the QPA Process, and to be a training vehicle so that members of the Kansas State Board of Education Outcomes Education Team and the Kansas education community might have the knowledge base necessary to…

The central component of the University of Cincinnati's teacher education restructuring involved development of a pattern language based on research in architectural redesign. The language identifies areas of knowledge necessary for teaching and specifies the processes and structures for achieving goals. It allows incorporation of goals and values…

This report offers insights on the experiences and techniques used in the Dearborn Public Schools effort to integrate Title VII and Chapter 1 programs prior to their reauthorization. The school system is located near metropolitan Detroit, Michigan, and has over 14,500 students representing 24 languages, many from the Middle East, Romania, and…

The view discussed is that mathematics teachers are becoming a rare, if not endangered, species, and the public image of mathematics needs to be changed. The mathematics teacher is termed the crucial variable, and a need is seen for changes in mathematics teacher education. The approach described is based on the following assumptions: (1)…

This paper examines how to encourage widespread adoption of comprehensive school-reform models--adoption outside the schools and districts that took part in the development process. It refers to such models as "design-based" schools. The paper defines what is meant by a school design and describes receptive school and district…