In the post-Apartheid era South Africa's universities have faced serious questions about the quality of their student learning in the face of near impossible challenges. The University of Cape Town, widely seen as the country's leading higher education institution, has shown remarkable resilience, however, in the range of initiatives it has…

Over the years, the nation's large urban school districts have consistently learned from the progress of their peer districts across the country. Great City School districts that have embraced the challenge of educating America's urban children have recognized the value of benchmarking their performance and growth against the progress of others.…

With the pool of high school graduates decreasing, national and global competition increasing, and the need to invest in new technologies and approaches growing, many universities and small colleges alike are struggling--not just to thrive, but to survive. In this challenging environment, mergers and consolidations are often viewed as options of…

Student mobility to and among higher education systems in Asia has reached unprecedented levels. In particular, inbound and outbound student mobility creates twin challenges--growing diversity in host countries and brain drain and circulation for sending countries--that have significant implications for growing intra-regional mobility,…

In spite of soaring tuition costs, more and more students go to college every year. A bachelor's degree is now required for entry into a growing number of professions. And some parents begin planning for the expense of sending their kids to college when they're born. Almost everyone strives to go, but almost no one asks the fundamental question…

With the need for rapid school reform amid changes in socioeconomic and political situations, evidence abounds that today's school principals operate in a stress-strained environment. Participants of this study identified at least a form of stress on the job. More than 96% claimed to have experienced work-related stress at a level they believed…

The rationale for taking bold action on the nation's persistently failing schools can be summed up in one dramatic and disturbing statistic: half of the young Americans who drop out of high school attend just 12 percent of the nation's schools. Ending the cycle of failure at schools is a daunting challenge and a surprisingly controversial one.…

The stories, anecdotes, humor, and insights found in this book capture what it means to be a teacher. The book begins with common encounters that are the hallmark of the new-teacher experience, but continues into equally entertaining tales that come with years of working with students, parents, staff, faculty, and administrators. "What It Means…

Analyzes five intellective and nine non-intellective variables to develop mathematical models to predict freshman success and persistence. Lists and describes the variables. Explores the model's attempts in predicting grade point average and chance of success in an engineering school. (MVL)

Many state optometric licensing boards require a scaled or percentage score of 75 on each section. A study of multiple criteria and pass-fail rates suggests that high failure rates are a result not of candidate ability but of arbitrary classification of test content. State boards are encouraged to resolve these problems. (MSE)

This short 3-page article presents four examples of innovative higher education programs that failed because the ideas were imported from other institutions without understanding the substructures that were needed for success. In the first case study, a Writing Across the Curriculum program was implemented through writing-intensive courses…

Four case studies of failed efforts to increase diversity on college campuses are explored. Examples demonstrate the need to gain commitment of faculty and staff, the need for administrative leadership to take risks, the need to find constructive ways to resolve differences, and the need to anticipate consequences of minority recruitment policies.…

Argues that current grading practices in some schools lack consistency in several critical areas, including criteria for failure, absolute or relative standards, and motivation of slower students. Policies are suggested that will help educators develop fairer and more humane marking systems. (TE)

Merit pay plans for administrators do not work in school systems in which the governing board is elected from among lay people. In 1979, the Brewster (New York) Central School District developed an administrator merit pay plan. The goal of the plan was to implement changes and programs which would reflect the needs of the community as interpreted…

A discussion of the education of bilingual children, in both mainstream instructional programs and bilingual or transitional programs, focuses on the manner in which the powerful teacher-student relationship affects student learning processes and the student's language capacity allows him to express his learning. In the first two chapters, the…