Between 2001 and 2005, the state of Maine shifted the focus of its statewide high school improvement efforts to include an explicit focus on adolescent literacy. One trigger for that change in focus was a 5-school adolescent literacy initiative previously launched in a rural county under the federal Northeast and Islands Regional Educational…

This paper reports on the findings of Year 1 of a three-year project, funded by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, to study the implementation of the First Steps Literacy Program in a New England urban school district. The study is informed by theories of literacy that view reading, writing, and language as integrated components…

Case studies of five small and isolated rural schools in the south-central United States examined their participation and success in the Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration (CSRD) program. The schools included three elementary schools and two K-12 unit schools serving 71-473 students. All were at least 50 miles from a metropolitan area and…

This is a report analyzing the multiple community college attendance patterns of students from nine colleges in the Los Angeles Community College District (California) from 1990-2000. The assessment utilizes the Multiple College Index (MCI), which is a measure based on the proportion of units a student earns at different colleges. The study…

Comprehensive school reform efforts are an increasingly visible part of the educational landscape. Policymakers, educators, and researchers are eager to assess the effectiveness of these models, especially regarding their utility in the most troubled settings. This paper reports results from one such reform, the Talent Development Middle School…

In responding to the emerging challenges to education in Asia and the Pacific in this new century, this Asia-Pacific Programme of Educational Innovation for Development (APEID) book series, "Educational Innovation for Development," is launched to reflect a knowledge base of rethinking on roles of education in development. The series…

During the 2000-2001 school year, the Washington State Institute for Public Policy conducted a study of how public high schools in Washington State are responding to state education reform. One aspect of the study was the experiences of high schools with various strategies to increase student engagement in learning. This paper summarizes study…

This paper reports on a series of three studies designed to assess the effectiveness of a metacognitive approach to teaching word identification and reading comprehension skills to upper primary poor readers, and to investigate effective methods for implementing the metacognitive program in the regular classroom. To improve word identification…

Interviews were conducted with elementary secondary teachers, who used a new curriculum management system, to ascertain how the teachers perceived their work and the degree to which they reflected upon the purposes behind what they were doing. The perceived alienation of the teachers toward the new system is discussed. (CJ)

The approach to designing decision support systems for academic library management which is described explores online retrieval of profiles of user productivity, resource utilization, and resource availability. Database models, implementation considerations, database management systems, a sample application, and supplementing manager's judgement…

Studies in five Missouri districts identified eight characteristics deterring change and constituting an "informal covenant" between teachers and principals. Eight corresponding conditions essential to change include relating changes to a school's culture, knowing local procedures and sensitive issues, recognizing moments when changes are…

Part of a special issue on organizational research utilization, this article analyzes two National Institute of Education programs--the Research and Development Utilization Program and the Experimental Schools Program--and finds that a key reason for nonutilization of research is the "policy vacuum" in which research is conducted.…

Change strategies must include informal school networks and norms. Implementation plans must involve teachers and principals prior to training. (Author/JM)

An intergovernment program implementation framework is shown to be strongly affected by the way federal expectations and administrative actions interact with the state and local education agency programs. They can influence the components of categories of implementation factors, process variables, and the agency role orientations. (CM)

Chief student-personnel officers (N=203) from two- and four-year private and public institutions responded to a management technique survey replicating a 1976 national study. Responses indicated that although management techniques have remained unchanged, application of the techniques varied between two- and four-year colleges and universities.…