Background: Animal-assisted Education (AAE), including Reading to Dogs (RTD), is an area of growing interest internationally across all phases of education, and increasingly considered an innovative approach to improving pupil outcomes. As creating RTD interventions necessitates a combination of expertise from the fields of education and…

Student feedback collected through program evaluation of secondary education licensure and Master's program clinical experiences prompted us to conduct a collective self-study. We used a reflective framework for analysis and discussion of the shifts students in our courses made as they progressed from observers to practicing teachers. Along with…

This article summarizes current research on effective professional development and offers a checklist for school leaders to use when designing learning opportunities for teachers. Effective professional development engages teachers in learning opportunities that are supportive, job-embedded, instructionally-focused, collaborative, and ongoing.…

Given what system leaders must accomplish with limited resources, they must make bold decisions about their current investments to achieve high-priority goals related to implementing college- and career-ready standards. This workbook is designed to guide users through a five-step process of understanding what professional learning is available in…

A professional learning plan is the navigation system for the comprehensive professional learning system. Professional learning plans establish short- and long-term guidance for professional learning and its implementation. This workbook offers information and tools to walk educators through seven planning steps--from data analysis, to setting…

Check & Connect was created in a five year period from 1990 to 1995. The original manual, entitled "Keeping Kids in School: Using Check & Connect for Dropout Prevention" and written by David Evelo, Mary Sinclair, Christine Hurley, Sandra Christenson, and Martha Thurlow, was published in 1996 (ED398701). This newly revised Check…

A study examined the success of the Pennsylvania Department of Education's Exemplary Program Project for Vocational Education in implementing and replicating exemplary vocational education programs, disseminating information about successful programs to local education agencies, and motivating school officials and teachers to develop or replicate…

A research project developed a business-education partnership model for use by the Whatcom County Tech Prep Consortium (or any other consortia) seeking to establish successful collaborative efforts between education and business. Methodology included the following: a survey of the Washington State Tech Prep Director's Association; two telephone…

The Effective Schools Project is a test of a general method for improving organizational effectiveness. The method--Program Development Evaluation (PDE)--calls for researcher-practitioner collaboration in the design, implementation, and evaluation of programs to increase school effectiveness. Two Baltimore City junior high schools are working with…

This paper describes the development and operation of two professional development schools (PDS) by the School of Education at Baylor University. These schools were organized to develop and demonstrate: (1) high quality learning programs for diverse students; (2) practical, thought-provoking preparation for novice teachers; (3) new understandings…

This study examines what makes cooperative arrangements between industry and Technical and Further Education (TAFE) in Australia successful. A literature review highlighted the importance of the provision of high quality technical education that meets the needs of the client. A range of innovative or entrepreneurial examples of industry/TAFE…

An approach to educational research that is receiving renewed attention is participatory action research (PAR), which emphasizes a bottom-up approach to research as well as useful outcomes. PAR is a philosophy, and not a methodology per se. It is a deliberate, goal-directed, structured, and applied means of obtaining information that looks to…

This handbook for administrators, teachers, parents, and students describes a system of strategies that will assist in implementing follow-up studies of former vocational program participants (completers and/or early leavers). Section 1 discusses use of the handbook. Section 2 concerns the rationale for doing follow-up and includes legislation,…

This report provides an evaluation of the Online at PA Libraries project which was initiated in the Fall of 1996 by the Pennsylvania Department of Education's Office of Commonwealth Libraries and the Schuylkill Intermediate Unit. The report documents that the following goals were accomplished: (1) provide public access to the Internet through…

A guide to the implementation of the Entry Level Skills Program (ELSP) and a conceptual framework for evaluation research is presented. Attention is directed to strategies for the attainment of goals and management of the ELSP project, which is a developmental program for freshmen students who have not acquired the full range or level of cognitive…