As early-career Extension educators challenged by societal, structural, agricultural, and fiscal trends, we designed a multiyear educational program to support the diverse needs of emerging specialty crop producers in northwest Michigan. This article presents outcomes of that program. We explore how Extension professionals can develop impactful…

A "conference" is a familiar mode of work for academics. Conferences provide opportunities to bring professionals working in a field together to share and build knowledge. As common as conferences are, however, they are quite challenging to design in ways that truly succeed in galvanizing the attention of an academic community on a…

Communities of practice (COPs) are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better through interacting with one another (Wenger 1998). Communities of practice have enormous potential to support and sustain quality care and education within a community and, in fact, are doing so. Businesses and…

This study describes special education alternative route (AR) teacher preparation programs. The authors developed a national database of programs and collected information on program sponsorship, length and intensity, features, and participant demographics. Most of the 235 programs in the database were in states that had significant shortages of…

This position paper was written to answer a series of basic questions frequently asked about attrition and retention at Empire State College (ESC), New York. The questions addressed in the report are: (1) What is the attrition rate at ESC? (2) How does ESC's attrition rate compare to other colleges? (3) Who are the leavers? (4) When does attrition…

This study explored the relationship between the setting of a teacher center and the ways in which the center is used by persons who participate in the activities offered there, focusing on the Workshop Center for Open Education of City College, New York. A description is given of the facility itself--the physical plant, location, educational…

Established innovative interest-free loan program in midwestern metropolitan area as response to deteriorating economic circumstances of low-wage-earning single parents and their dependent children during 1980s. Interviews with participants revealed personal characteristics and economic circumstances of target population and purposes for which…

The Urban 4-H Program involved low income, inner city youth in two of the State's largest cities. The project background is described. Data bearing on the program planning process and attempts to ascertain the nature, source, and extent of influences affecting that process is analyzed. Urban 4-H Program participants are compared on several…

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 National Council on Aging in cooperation with a consortium of nine corporations and four unions is developing a retirement planning approach. Article focuses on preliminary findings of a survey of consortium companies' employees retirement attitudes and preparations. Seventy percent of those 40-65 indicated interest in attending a retirement…

This book focuses on career guidance functions at the secondary school level. In chapter 1, some basic assumptions about career guidance as one aspect of guidance counseling are presented. Chapter 2 discusses the components of a student guidance system: assessment of the student's personal characteristics and the status of the student's career…

This booklet is intended as a guide for community educators on planning and teaching educational programs for older adults. Chapter 1, Getting Started, discusses the program plan which identifies the sponsoring agency, advisory committee, and ways of determining needs and interests. Chapter 2, Designing the Program, focuses on the participants,…

This paper examines how selected characteristics of a program and attributes of key actors affected a particular collaborative effort to increase the supply of secondary math and science teachers. A funded grant created the need for collaborative linkage between schools and a university which had no prior experience with joint efforts. Elements of…

A project was conducted to introduce adults in a rural community in New York to Apple computers. Adults in the Addison School District of Steuben County were recruited through the county cooperative extension program and through high school and elementary school bulletins. Four courses were conducted with from 10 to 25 adults in each four-part…

This report presents planning, implementation, and first-year operational phases of Youth Employment and Demonstration Projects Act (YEDPA) programs by prime sponsors in the Southwest. The prime sponsors were the city of Albuquerque and the encompassing county of Bernalillo, New Mexico; the Coastal Bend Manpower Consortium Area in Texas…