After many years of focusing on providing black students with access to postsecondary education, attention is being refocused on retaining students through graduation. Critics say that enrollment rates, not commitment, dictate retention efforts and that such programs are isolated, not institutionwide efforts. Some institutions are sharing dropout…

Five articles describe the involvement of the Government Printing Office (GPO) and four depository libraries in the initial GPO Access Gateway Library Program. Technical issues and innovations are discussed, and the challenges of building such a program are outlined. (AEF)

Young African American males' role models are those in the entertainment and sports arenas. Few see themselves as scholars, contributing to the common good. To counteract teachers' low expectations of black males' performance, educators at Benjamin Tasker Middle School in Bowie, Maryland, established African-American Achievers, a program that…

Argues that for early intervention programs to become part of national, state, and community efforts to assist families in early education, they must represent the cooperation and joint planning of constituencies involved, including the research, policy, consumer, and practice communities. Describes an early education demonstration program that is…

Describes the work of the Romanian Orphanage Trust, which is working in partnership with the Romanian government to develop a model foster care program. Discusses the scale of the challenge facing those attempting to build services for families and children in that country. (HTH)

Discusses how camps can survive by changing their marketing approach, organizational structure, and programming to meet the needs of the community. Profiles Wyman Center, a residential camp near Saint Louis, Missouri, that has prospered as a result of breaking with tradition and redefining the terms "camp" and "customer." (LP)

Based on the "High Schools That Work" model, the Quad County Tech Prep Consortium in Florida has won several awards for its comprehensive tech prep program. The partnership enables technical students from four school districts to flow smoothly into an associate degree program at Indian River Community College. (JOW)

Describes a writing program in a first-grade classroom in a primarily low-socioeconomic, urban Appalachian region. Notes that the program aims at helping children become writers and to: (1) teach the concept of writing as communication; (2) learn about children's strengths and needs through observations and writing samples and teach accordingly;…

There are over 64,000 items available at the Springfield (Missouri) Public Schools'"etc." Center--a supplementary materials warehouse designed to encourage recycling and enhance teachers' curricular repertoire. The idea was hatched by a concerned parent. Staffed by a director and volunteers and funded partly by outside user fees, the…

The evolution of a doctoral program in education (Ed.D.) is chronicled, with special attention to a culminating project designed to link theory and practice. It was found that while students' projects mimicked the norms of a conventional dissertation, they often lacked rigor and depth. It is felt that preceding coursework had not adequately…

This article describes three field-tested approaches to planning educational programs in inclusive settings for students who are deaf-blind, making decisions about support services, and developing lesson accommodations to include the students in typical class activities. (Author)

The Leo Baeck Institute (New York, New York) is creating a database registering the Jewish archival holdings of repositories in Germany. Discussion includes project planning, creating a German-language version of the Library of Congress subject headings, enhancing access to collections, computerization of archival finding aids, types of materials,…

Documents the approach and the design decisions taken during the establishment of a quality system for teaching activities in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Leeds. Describes the motivations for performing the work, how it was organized and resourced, the approach adopted, and the impact of the Higher Education…

Describes the SPARCS (Solving Problems and Revitalizing Curriculum in Science) program, an interdisciplinary partnership between University of Nebraska-Lincoln students and faculty and Omaha Public Schools science teachers and administrators. Success depended on establishing long-term, diverse partnerships; providing a learning community for…

Explores the most effective strategy roles that coalitions can play in the prevention of complex, entrenched, social and health problems such as violence, alcoholism, and other substance abuse problems. The paper also outlines the key internal capacities a coalition will need in order to establish a support system for prevention initiatives. (GR)