Many counties of Western North Carolina have high levels of food insecurity that may be addressed by training communities to grow, prepare, and preserve their own food. A curriculum was developed and tested in 2016 at a Section 8 housing development in Polk County, NC. Research investigated successful community agriculture projects and assessed…

Educator preparation Programs nationwide seek evidence to meet accreditation standards for the impact of program completers on P-12 student learning and teaching effectiveness. The University of Evansville's School of Education conducted a systematic case study to identify any areas for improvement within the teacher preparation program. The…

This issue of "Assessment Update" presents the following articles: (1) Organizing for Learning Improvement: What It Takes (Andrea M. Pope and Keston H. Fulcher); (2) Editor's Notes: The Leadership Imperatives for Assessment Excellence -- Imperative #2, Attracting and Retaining Talent to Support Assessment Excellence (Stephen P. Hundley);…

The purpose of this phenomenological study was two-fold: (a) to explore and describe the perceived impact of Pepperdine University's Educational Leadership Academy (ELA) on 2003-2006 ELA graduates' career advancement, career enhancement, and personal growth; and (b) to obtain ELA graduates' suggestions for ELA program improvement to better prepare…

High-quality care in the earliest years of life has been shown to relate to positive developmental outcomes for children, including improved early academic skills, social-emotional competencies, and cognitive functioning. Unfortunately, the early care experiences of many children are not always high quality; rather, research suggests that…

Perhaps a decade ago, accreditation agencies might have been satisfied with a list of student learning outcomes and some evidence that students achieved them. More and more, accreditors request evidence of "improvement". It is not enough to merely demonstrate that what one is doing works reasonably well; one must also show that he or she…

When the University of North Dakota began working to improve general education, two concerns were recognized. The first issue, which faculty and administrators across campus found immediately engaging, was how to change general education so that it would be a better program, more likely to yield clear student learning benefits. A second concern,…

Objective: Educational program evaluation and program improvement are processes that can be enhanced by involving multiple stakeholders and measurement tools. The purpose of this study was to compare faculty and resident physician perceptions of both teaching quality and resident competence for 13 core psychiatric skills and the six Accreditation…

Implementation of the curriculum-centered, standards-based federally mandated reform, No Child Left Behind, has placed pressure on teachers, particularly those working in schools comprised of highly diverse and impoverished students, to have their students attain predetermined levels on high stakes, standardized tests. When schools have not met…

The goals of this research are two-fold: (1) to survey the literature comparing the effectiveness (as measured by student achievement on state tests) of scripted language arts/reading programs in low-performing schools, and (2) to compare middle school teachers' attitudes (measured in questionnaires, interviews and surveys) on implementation and…

One of the greatest challenges that community colleges face in their efforts to increase graduation rates is improving the success of students in their developmental, or remedial, education programs--the courses that students without adequate academic preparation must take before they can enroll in courses for college credit. Emphasizing results…

Regardless of where you are in your school improvement process, here's a book that helps you make sure you have all the right elements working for you in the right way. The authors take you through the core processes that are essential for all school improvement efforts--from establishing your mission to differentiating your supervision based on…

Women continue to be underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields and in STEM leadership positions. According to the most recent data available from the National Science Foundation, in academia only 31% of full-time STEM faculty and 27% of STEM deans and department heads are women. By comparison at Stevenson…

This article reports on a faculty development model that uses a variety of approaches and strategies to help faculty restructure their curricula and effectively model technology integration for their students. A multifaceted model, funded in part by the "Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology" (PT3) initiative, was implemented…

This article explores the application of Whitaker, King, and Vogel's (2004) best practices for the implementation of partnerships regarding school leadership preparation programs in 3 school district-university collaboratives located in urban settings with large minority student populations. The 3 partnerships studied include the Nashville…