This brief estimates the impact of a statewide implementation of Opportunity Culture models, using North Carolina as an example. Impacts estimated include student learning outcomes, gross state product, teacher pay, and other career characteristics, and state income tax revenue. Estimates indicate the potential for a statewide transition to…

By examining one writing center's role in student success, this project offers two examples of the way writing centers impact student engagement. This analysis models a methodology that writing and learning center directors can utilize in order to foster effective communication with stakeholders. By conducting data-driven assessment, directors can…

The article analyses the main benefits of a Portuguese programme, launched in 1996, which was designed to support schools in segregated districts (TEIPs). The first part of the article presents a theoretical framework, before moving on to the main features of the TEIP programme in contemporary Portuguese society and education. An explanation of…

This study presents an evaluation of the centres of excellence in higher education in Finland. This approach is an example of enhancement-led evaluation aiming to improve the long-term development of education. The study presents the Degree Programme in Civil Engineering of the Turku University of Applied Sciences, which was awarded the…

This article explores the reasons that Peer Assisted Study Sessions (PASS) at the University of the Incarnate Word (UIW), commonly called PASS-UIW, has been successful in science courses at the University. The intent is to provide information for other institutions to launch, evaluate, or improve their own programs. PASS-UIW is a student-led…

This article asks whether a school improvement programme in three provinces in Canada could have any implications for schools in England. Based on experience in a failing school that "turned around", a key feature of the programme was its emphasis on developing respectful social relationships at the same time as strengthening the…

School-based management/shared decision-making (SBM/SDM) in New York City rests on the conviction that schools can be improved by giving school professionals and parents the flexibility to develop local solutions for local problems. Accountability is critical to this approach; a school system cannot ask school staff to accept responsibility for…

Findings of a study that evaluated the Spencerport, New York, "More Effective Schools/Teaching Project" and examined the project's validation process are presented in this paper. The program model was based on change at the individual school level, administrator/staff collegiality, comprehensive interventions based on school culture, and…

When the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) was disbanded in 1990, 13 separate education authorities were created in its place. Two years after its creation, in partnership with all of its secondary schools, one of the new LEAs initiated a school-improvement project to raise standards called Schools Make A Difference (SMAD). This book…

Although early childhood education is important for all children, research suggests that it is particularly important for low-income and educationally disadvantaged children. Of the 53 Austin Independent School District (AISD) elementary schools that provided prekindergarten education, five Title I schools with full-day prekindergarten programs…

This paper examined state and community programs for preschool-aged children in Illinois during a 1-year period in order to identify, describe, and publicize effective practices in early childhood education. Exemplars, rather than content-specific standards, were used for selection criteria. A qualitative, connoisseurship model of evaluation was…

In 2001, the Bunche Academy was chosen by its district to join in partnership with the Da Vinci Learning Corporation to embark on an ambitious whole-school reform initiative, especially designed by the corporation for low-performing schools. In this chapter, the author describes how, as illustrated in the Bunche-Da Vinci Learning Academy context,…