Reduction in the size of classes from Kindergarten to Grade 3 was a major Liberal Party campaign promise in Ontario's 2003 provincial election. It was intended to demonstrate a new government's commitment to improving public education. By the 2008-09 school year, the provincial government's goals had been achieved: over 90% of all primary classes…

This paper presents a profile of Vermont's STep Ahead Recognition System (STARS) prepared as part of the Child Care Quality Rating System (QRS) Assessment Study. The profile consists of several sections and their corresponding descriptions including: (1) Program Information; (2) Rating Details; (3) Quality Indicators for All Child Care Programs;…

The experiences of middle school science teachers at two schools in the southeastern US who participated in collaborative, sustained, whole-school professional development and their implementation of standards-based instructional practices are the focus of this study. Participants were involved in their second year of the professional development…

A three-year project was undertaken by the National Center for research in Vocational Education (Ohio State University, OH) to investigate time on task in vocational and technical classes. During the first year of the project, researchers used the direct observation method to collect time-on-task data pertaining to 10 teachers and 186 students in…

The study uses Foucault's framework of governmentality to understand the impact of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) on teachers' writing instruction and attitudes toward writing in high- and low-income schools. Using interviews and observations of 18 teachers, the study identified four themes: emphasis on testing, curricular effects, awareness of…

This study evaluated the impact of a program for improving group functioning through reducing the frequency of inappropriate student behavior. Participating were 160 students in grades 3, 7, 10, and 11 from a primary school, a junior high, and 3 high schools. All of the subject schools were in low- to upper-middle class communities located in five…

An external evaluation of the Title VII Bilingual Education Project was designed to: (1) gather a subjective assessment from personnel working with the project; (2) observe classroom teaching and activities utilized in bilingual instruction; and (3) to measure differences in levels of achievement on the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS)…

Presented in this report are results from a study conducted to evaluate the impact of Project Developmental Continuity on children's development and academic achievement. Following the first chapter's introductory overview of the study's objectives and organization, chapter 2 documents the data collection methods and summarizes the analysis…

In order to test language ability and school readiness in children with Head Start experience, 168 disadvantaged children were randomly selected. Only half of the children had previous Head Start experience. All children received the Metropolitan Readiness Test and were observed by their teacher and examiner. The results showed that in language…

This Home Start report centers its attention on three areas: how actual home visits are being conducted, how projects are spending grant money from a cost analysis point of view, and whether any tentative statement on program effectiveness can be made based upon an analysis of pre-post test data. The seven sections of the report are: (1)…

This study develops and tests an instrument to assess the fidelity of the intended program, i.e., experimental treatment in the evaluation of a preschool program. During the school year (1972-73) CEMREL (Central Midwestern Educational Lab) investigated the consequences of different levels of training on implementation of the Demonstration and…

This thesis focuses on an educational partnership between the Canadian Centre for Architecture and Architects in Action, which explores the potential of utilizing professional arts practitioners in an outreach capacity to extend museum programming. It seeks to answer the following questions: How did the architects' experiences compare to their…

This study examined high-performing after-school projects funded by The After-School Corporation (TASC), to determine what characteristics, if any, these projects shared. Evaluators reanalyzed student performance data collected during the multi-year evaluation of the TASC initiative to identify projects where the after-school program was…

The impact of a modified wilderness program on the cooperative and aggressive behaviors of seriously emotionally disturbed adolescents was evaluated in the context of self-efficacy theory. Results indicated that participating adolescents showed a significant increase in cooperative behaviors and that direct observation procedures were more…

This study explores the impacts of backpacking as a therapeutic process for troubled adolescent women participating in wilderness therapy. A qualitative case study approach was used to investigate the experience of six adolescent women and three female wilderness instructors at an established wilderness therapy program. Data were collected through…