In the 20 years since the implementation of the Work Investment Act (WIA), federal funding for adult literacy education has remained largely stagnant, and actually decreased in inflation-adjusted dollars from FY2001-FY2019, despite the fact that the field serves fewer than 5% of those in need. Yet over these two decades, the field has moved away…

Studies have shown that teacher quality is the single greatest factor affecting student achievement. However, it is not simply enough to recruit highly qualified candidates and place them into the schools where they are needed the most; the United States needs a system to support and retain these teachers. This essay posits that school districts…

This webinar explored several elements of teacher preparation pathways, including the history, popularity, and quality of various routes to certification, as well as the impact of these various pathways on teacher quality and retention and student achievement. This Q&A addressed the questions participants had for Dr. Grossman following the…

Since U.S. economic growth began to slow in 2006, both the Bush and Obama Administrations have enacted a number of fairly costly programs designed to stimulate the economy and employment growth. Because many of these programs are fairly new, there has been little comprehensive examination of their impacts, but initial analysis suggests that these…

Includes "Child Labour Today: Facts and Figures"; "Action Required at the National Level"; "International Action: Standards Need Reinforcing"; and "Are Economic Incentive Programmes Effective?" (JOW)

In 2005 the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions, the central organisation of unions in New Zealand, initiated a Learning Representatives Project based on the British model. The Government approved an eight-month programme to be funded through its Tertiary Education Commission to "scope the project". Work began not just on scoping, but on…

Since the 1940s, public officials at the local, state and federal levels have used student loan forgiveness programs to attract individuals to critically needed occupations and underserved communities. In exchange for a work commitment, the loan program forgives (or repays) an amount of the employee's student loan. Traditionally, these programs…

In the Federal Republic of Germany, as elsewhere, the recent unemployment crisis has forced politicians, economists, trade unionists, and experts to consider a number of courses of action designed to reduce working time. Included among these alternatives are the following: adopting the 35-hour work week, shortening working life through early…

Young people's experience of education in a "risk society" is characterised by a terrain of "initiative overload" which appears to make the routes through which young people are seeking to plot a path evermore perilous. This article is concerned with the impact of creative learning on young people, as represented by the UK…

This congressional hearing contains testimony given in Montpelier, Vermont, at the first of a series of nationwide hearings on vocational education. Focus of this particular hearing is on the specific needs of Vermont as a rural northeastern state to train a workforce that is talented enough to help retrain existing businesses and industry and…

If training is to make a real difference in the organization, we need an alternative to the vacuum of performance. A view exists that springs from two fundamental premises: (1) every individual operates in the context of a performance system and (2) improvements in performance will occur only if we understand the variables in that system. (JOW)

Discusses the problem of turnover among nurses and proposes the use of networking as a means of retaining nursing staff. The plan relies on aspects of the nursing process--assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation--to retain quality nursing staff. (JOW)

This conference sought to identify and evaluate critical developments within the contemporary apprenticeship training system. Input came from educators, scholars, federal officials, and persons from labor and management. Conference participants stated that more persons are in apprenticeships (395,000) in the United States than ever before, but…

Apprenticeship training is structured on-the-job training combined with related classroom instruction. Most apprenticeship training is paid for by private businesses, with some training paid for by organized labor. Some apprenticeship programs have been developed in correctional facilities, both federally operated and state-operated institutions.…

This paper's overiew of the relationship between vocational education and productivity includes the presentation of results from a multiple regression analysis of vocational education enrollments and various productivity indices. This tentative analysis contributes additional observations to the studies reviewed and offers pertinent suggestions…