Beginning in September, 2001 when the Portland Public Schools received funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) through the Urban Systemic Program (USP) initiative, the district focused, accelerated and strengthened its efforts to improve mathematics and science education K-12. Since its inception the authors at Inverness Research…

"Skills for Action," a program to build positive character values and life and citizenship skills for students in grades 9-12, includes classroom lessons and service learning. The program, with more than 100 lessons focused around 26 personal, social, and thinking skills, ranges from one semester to four years in length. Students explore…

Recently, policy makers have begun to insist on evidence showing whether public investment in programs for children has achieved its desired results. No longer will it be sufficient to show that programs are meeting established standards for practice or that families are satisfied with services. Data are needed to show that services are effective.…

This research literature on educational technology has identified important contextual factors that influence how technology is used in educational settings. In May of this year, EDC conducted the 2006 Instructional Practices and Classroom Use of Technology Survey with over a thousand teachers. This report first presents the overall survey…

This final report describes activities and accomplishments of a project that provided an intensive 1-year training program for teachers working with students with emotional or behavior disorders. Forty-seven teachers (27 from under-represented populations) from the Nashville (Tennessee) Public School System were recruited and trained. All…

This action research project implemented and evaluated a program for improving social development of elementary school students in order to lessen disruptive behavior in physical education class. The targeted population consisted of elementary school children in second, fourth, and fifth grades in a growing rural, middle class community. Anecdotal…

According to the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC), the primary purpose of an ACCJC-accredited institution is to foster learning in its students. This paper presents ACCJC's four accreditation standards: (1) Institutional Mission and Effectiveness--the institution provides means for students to learn, assesses…

The American Institutes for Research's (AID's) International Development Program (IDP) seeks to enhance the capacity of developing countries to improve the quality of life through education and social development. Its work is based on a strong belief in the transformative power of education--that by providing children the opportunity to learn and…

This paper explores the Counting development of Australian children participating in the Early Numeracy Research Project (ENRP) who were identified as low-attaining using an individually administered assessment interview and a research informed framework of growth-points. The progress of Grade 1 and Grade 2 children who participated in an…

A project at the Oakland Public Library produced four volumes of oral histories, edited on four different reading levels, from beginning to intermediate, to correspond with the Laubach reading series. One consultant performed the three jobs of interviewer, transcriber, and writer, and two autobiographies were written rather than spoken by…

Proponents of competency-based education and training (CBET) promote it as a way to improve the correspondence between education/training and workplace requirements. CBET's opponents consider it excessively reductionist, narrow, and rigid, as well as theoretically, empirically, and pedagogically unsound. The following are among the issues…

Despite its low volume of lending for adult literacy and nonformal education, the World Bank acquired significant project experience in the 1960s and 1970s. Enthusiasm for nonformal education waned in the 1980s; increasing priority was given to help governments to achieve universal primary education as the principal means of making societies…

This paper describes the JumpStart project, a two-year grant program initiated by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the Center for the Study of Community Colleges (CSCC) to help community colleges develop entrepreneurship education efforts. Following a brief introduction, findings are presented from an initial review of existing community…

The growth of adult higher education programs is in direct response to the demand in the marketplace for adult higher education. It is possible to deliver a high quality educational program in a nontraditional delivery format for the adult learner and to identify high quality educational programs in the marketplace. High quality adult educational…

This final report discusses the outcomes of a 2-year project designed to provide an innovative tool process and a state-of-the-art instructional environment for children from 3 through 8 years of age with a wide range of disabilities across ages, classrooms, and locations as they constructed their own communities and participated in building a…