This paper is written for state educational agency (SEA) leaders who are considering the benefits of collaborative benchmarking, and it addresses the following questions: (1) What does benchmarking of best practices entail?; (2) How does "collaborative benchmarking" enhance the process?; (3) How do SEAs control the process so that "their" needs…

In 2004, the University of Kansas (KU) launched an interdisciplinary Graduate Writing Program as part of a larger initiative to reduce time to degree rates and increase degree completion rates. Serving both domestic and international students, this program employs a rhetorical genre-based approach in a series of courses organized around the genres…

Lack of money has long kept promising preventive programs from expanding. Existing government-funded programs are furthermore subject to budgetary cutbacks or complete loss of funding. Moreover, preventive programs traditionally offer no accountability for success or failure. This leaves government entities in a bind where if they invest their…

This paper describes a model providing a framework through which communities can work to meet the critical shortage of adequate quality child care facilities and services in rural as well as urban areas. This CETA program model, called the Fresh Start Approach, offers skills training and supportive services to economically disadvantaged women…

The report describes the first few months of operation of an experimental Work Incentive Program (WIN) in Portland, Oregon to test the feasibility of the use of vouchers for on-the-job training (OJT). Voucher holders were required to decide on a training occupation, and then locate and negotiate for an employer to provide the training. WIN staff…

A case study of the introduction of the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) in Boston was conducted (1) to chronicle and analyze the changes in employment and training planning and programs as the federal policy changes from a centralized and categorical policy to a decentralized and decategorized one, (2) to examine the impact of…

Between July 1, 1991 and June 30, 1993, Washington State's Displaced Homemaker Program (DHP) served a total of 55,363 individuals. The program's intensive instructional services component was completed by 2,496 eligible displaced homemakers, 84% of whom were aged 30-59. Of the DHP participants, 84% were white, 75% were separated or divorced, 79%…

Adult Americans have been participating in formal education and training programs in record numbers in recent years. Yet studies of participation by working Americans in tuition assistance programs have consistently revealed that few take advantage of them. This report describes and analyzes the Kimberly-Clark Corporation's tuition-assistance…

This report describes and analyzes the programs of the Education Fund of District Council 37 of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) in New York City. The Education Fund is a program carried out by the union to provide a wide variety of educational curricula, many on its premises, for the union's thousands of…

This brochure explains the basic structures, content, and methodologies, which have been established by the Colombo Plan Staff College for Technician Training for its activities in its first two years of operation. The role of a variety of technicians is explained, along with their importance in developing countries. The problems of technician…