Building and sustaining students' sense of belonging at school has been proposed by teachers and researchers as a means of stimulating students' intent or desire to learn and of reducing student attrition. This article will present the results of an inquiry into the literature on belonging to support the perspective that is it necessary, not only…

This literature review focuses on education policy implementation, its definition, processes and determinants. It aims to clarify what implementing policies involve in complex education systems to support policy work, building on the literature and country examples. An introduction delves into the reasons behind the need to update the concept of…

The rigorous and complex demands of a mentor's role are often overlooked during the mentorship of preservice teachers. Mentors have the profound responsibility to be both supervisor and instructor all the while fostering a cooperative, trusting, and supportive relationship. However, many mentors feel unprepared to meet the needs of preservice…

This article attempts to describe the creation and implementation of the first Professional Development School (PDS) model of teacher education in Panama. The authors set the context within brief histories of international education and PDSs and provide operational definitions of the critical terminology. To be sure, the scope and scale of the…

As a result of this research, a quantitative model and a procedure have been developed to create an online mentoring effectiveness index (EI). To develop the model, mentoring and teaching effectiveness are defined, and then the constructs and factors of effectiveness are identified. The model's construction is based on the theory that…

This article examines teacher leader role development and definition by looking at one emergent model of distributed leadership: the hybrid teacher leader (HTL). HTLs are teachers whose official schedule includes both teaching K-12 students and leading teachers in some capacity. Participants included six HTLs across four school districts over 2…

Today's school business officials are more aware than ever of the importance of making every dollar count. As they scour their budgets for possible savings, they may be tempted to reduce investment in school infrastructure, perhaps by deferring maintenance, renovations, and replacement of outdated facilities. However, school business officials…

Metadiscourse is a new and interesting field of inquiry which is believed to play a vital role in organizing and producing persuasive writing, based on the norms and expectations of people involved. Metadiscourse embodies the idea that writing and speaking are more than just the communication of ideas and presentation of ideational meaning. Rather…

The School Improvement Grants (SIG) program is authorized by section 1003(g) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA). Under section 1003(g)(1) of the ESEA, the Secretary must award grants to States to enable the States to provide subgrants to local educational agencies for the purpose of providing assistance for school…

In this dissertation, I develop a definition and regional measure of entrepreneurship that will aid entrepreneurship research and economic development policy. My new indicators represent an improvement over current measures of entrepreneurship. The chief contribution of these new indicators is that they incorporate innovation, which others ignore.…

Offers a sketch of a concept called the "liminal state" that may represent a central element of designing and a condition that facilitates the best design products and processes. A definition of "liminal state," some contexts in which it may occur, and some areas where liminal states might improve performance are given.…

Even though HRD-related programs and activities carry risks that should be monitored and assessed, there is little literature on how auditing applies to the HRD function; the existing literature on the topic defines HRD auditing in widely different ways. The nature of risk for organizational process is discussed, followed by a review of the…

In this article we argue, through a case study in a large, urban local authority in England, that local stakeholders in early years provision express a variety of perspectives on quality but are constrained by a national framework which promotes an "official" definition of quality. We offer a quality-defining model that captures the role…

This document contains information about the methodology and findings of a study that identified 20 programs across the United States that have been successful in raising student's academic achievement. Part 1 contains the following items: (1) an explanation of the process and criteria used to select the 20 examples of excellence drawn from the 96…

Anticipated demographic changes in the United States adult population in the decade between the National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS) of 1992 and the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL), which is scheduled for 2002, were reviewed. Next, the implications of those changes for the NALS and NAAL were analyzed. The analysis focused on births,…