This is a design case of the development, implementation, and evaluation of an online course for nursing educators at a large southeastern college. The course teaches best practices for organizing online instruction with a focus on the Quality Matters standards. Implementation with a small group of instructors resulted in positive responses that…

The purpose of this Action Research study was to investigate and improve preschool program maintenance and decision-making processes as understood by teachers, parents, administrators, and community members. Participants and data collected in Cycle 1 consisted of interviews with two teachers, one current and one former, and three former parents…

Over the last several years, a growing number of cities have invested in early care and education for 3- and 4-year-old children, known as "preschool." This paper aims to aid cities in planning preschool programs by outlining a range of factors to consider. We largely do not make recommendations, but rather try to identify a range of…

The 2021-22 accreditation year continued to be impacted in significant ways by the ongoing nature of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. All accreditation activities, including site visits, were adjusted to reflect this new reality while maintaining full implementation of the system. This report presents information about the major activities of the…

School inspections are expected to have an impact on data use and improvement of schools. Schools are expected to generate data (e.g., self-evaluation reports and student achievement results) as part of the inspection process. This process, in turn, also generates data (e.g., inspection reports) for school improvement. The high-stakes context in…

What constitutes quality in early childhood settings, and how can it best be measured with today's widely used tools and promising new approaches? Find authoritative answers in this book, a must-have for high-level administrators and policymakers as more and more states adopt early childhood Quality Rating and Improvement Systems. The most…

This report describes a collaboration between the Indiana Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning (OECOSL) and the Behavioral Interventions to Advance Self-Sufficiency (BIAS) team. The OECOSL is the lead agency responsible for administering the state's Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF), which provides child care subsidies to…

This fourth edition of the Forum on Education Abroad's "Standards of Good Practice for Education Abroad" augments previous editions of the "Standards." Since the last edition was published in 2008, Forum member institutions and organizations have implemented the Standards in program development and assessment, using the Standards in the Forum's…

A national project designed to examine issues of budget reform and quality improvement in higher education is described. The focus is state-level budget practices and their impact on institutions. Most of the funding for quality improvement has been categorical: a small percent of the budget is set aside to achieve particular quality or…

Reviews the development of European Union's early childhood social policy agenda over the last 15 years, examining what part of the agenda addresses early years issues and what problems the EU should focus on. Raises questions that require attention and makes a series of suggestions as to what a distinctive European approach for early year…

Compares the rationale and regulatory requirements for daycare put forth by the Department of Health with those currently operating with the Department for Education and Employment for schools and nursery education in the United Kingdom. Suggests that these two policy frameworks are based on different assumptions about practice and lead to major…

The evaluation process provides valuable information so that practitioners may share and benchmark their efforts to improve and enhance the quality of the educational reform initiative called tech prep. Evaluation should be part of every phase of a tech prep initiative, from needs assessment to completion. A tech prep program is typically at one…

Online degree programs are continuing to gain popularity among institutions of higher education as indicated by "U.S. News" who recently listed 263 accredited online graduate degree programs on its Web site (U. S. News and World Report, U.S. News Online, n.d.) As the access afforded by distance education increases the number of students…

This report describes a project to develop a system for community colleges to delineate, obtain, and provide information for judging whether to continue, modify, or terminate occupational education programs. The report reviews the project's background, objectives, procedures, accomplishments, problems, evaluation, and conclusions/recommendations.…

This paper describes an information system designed for data-based decision making by a state vocational education agency in prioritizing courses for instructional materials development or acquisition. This needs assessment system is the second part of a project which focused attention on the need for competency-based instruction. The information…