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…

Delaware Technical and Community College online courses are not properly focused to ensure instructors are effective in improving student achievement. First time online students are not given the proper tools when navigating online courses at the college. The focus at Delaware Tech should be on improving the format which students use when…

Purpose: This paper aims to examine the importance of new employee orientation (NEO) programs, the quality of typical NEOs, and how to improve NEOs. Design/methodology/approach: The paper provides a viewpoint of the importance of new employee orientation programs, the quality of typical NEOs, and how to improve NEOs. Findings: Although western…

Perspectives on a greater partnership between education and business/industry are offered. The goal of this partnership is to achieve educational excellence. To accomplish this, greater participation of business and industry in the universities' educational preparation programs is needed. It is necessary to define role responsibilities for a…

EQUAL (Educational Quality or Adult Literacy) is Pennsylvania's program improvement initiative that measures performance by the quality of education learners receive. For 3 years, Project EQUAL was piloted in adult education agencies throughout the state. Beginning in 1997, the pilot projects helped to develop a process for continuous program…

Vocational education programs were offered in 10 middle schools, 5 area high schools, 2 alternative high schools, and at the central campus of Des Moines Public Schools (Iowa). The major curricular focus at the middle school was career exploration. At the area high school level, the program was broad based to meet the needs of a high percentage of…

This training manual consists of two major sections: a "Handbook for Conducting an Elementary Program Review" and the "Elementary Program Quality Criteria" document. The handbook is designed to assist a program review team in (1) judging the effect of curriculum, instructional methodologies, and effectiveness strategies on…

An overview is presented of a program that utilizes the abilities of a team of university professors to improve curriculum, build a staff development program, and establish diagnostic/prescriptive reading and mathematics programs in a junior high school. The school is in the inner city of Charleston, West Virginia, and its population is comprised…

Assessing School-Age Child Care Quality (ASQ) is a five-step process which guides program staff as they evaluate the quality of their program so they can develop priorities and improve achievement of goals. The five steps in the ASQ process are: (1) preparing for program improvement; (2) gathering information; (3) building the Action Plan; (4)…

Schools are expected to provide a safe environment and to play an active role in socializing children for participation in a civil society. Most schools have programs to prevent problem behavior and serious misconduct such as drug use and violence. But how good are these programs? A recent national study surveyed principals, teachers, program…

A study was conducted of the early childhood programs in the McAllen (Texas) Independent School District. This qualitative study used data collected through observations, interviews, document analysis, questionnaires, and site visits. Current practices were described and compared to developmentally appropriate practices as defined by the National…

In April 1984, more than 350 parents, teachers, principals and administrators from major urban school systems in Massachusetts met to define what an "excellent" desegregated urban public school system should be. This conference report, following excerpts from a keynote address by John E. Durkin, documents seven workshops which focused on…

Concerns about the quality of a before- and after-school program on an overseas military installation arose due to low staff morale, caregivers' lack of training and experience, and child behavior problems. This practicum project devised and implemented a 10-week training program to increase staff knowledge of developmentally appropriate practices…