A study analyzed factors affecting peer assessments of faculty quality and program effectiveness using the 1993 National Research Council graduate program survey. Results indicate determinants for faculty quality and program effectiveness are very similar. Further, programs in private institutions and/or institutions with more highly rated…

Bayesian networks are frequently used in educational assessments primarily for learning about students' knowledge and skills. There is a lack of works on assessing fit of Bayesian networks. This article employs the posterior predictive model checking method, a popular Bayesian model checking tool, to assess fit of simple Bayesian networks. A…

Workshops are currently one of the most popular ways for instructors in STEM fields to learn more about teaching and learning. Yet research shows we often do not know what participants gain from attending. This article suggests ways of measuring impact of instructional improvement workshops that will help not only workshop providers with designing…

Upward Bound is a federally funded program designed to prepare economically and educationally disadvantaged high school students for postsecondary education. Each year, approximately thirty-three thousand students are served by the more than four hundred Upward Bound programs. Several studies have documented the success of Upward Bound programs in…

To enable teachers to become "transformative intellectuals" (Huckle, 1996), a critical form of educational inquiry that enables them to investigate their practice, is required (Robottom, 1987). Such an approach was used in developing assessment resources and materials "with" teachers, not "for" teachers. The important…

Efforts to improve social studies at the elementary level have not fared well in recent years. Federal demands for greater emphasis on mathematics and reading instruction have had a direct impact on social studies instruction--eroding elementary teachers' time and energy for the subject. In spite of this changing context, many states still test…

The Center on Education Policy (CEP) has been studying state high school exit examinations since 2002. This is the sixth annual report on our comprehensive study of exit exams. The information comes from several sources: our survey of states that have mandatory exit exams, interviews with state officials, media reports, state Web sites, and case…

One of the most critical needs in Florida's "Reading First" schools is to improve the effectiveness of interventions for struggling readers. For example, during the 2005-2006 school year, only 17% of first grade students who began the year at some level of risk for reading difficulties finished the year with grade level skills on the…

It is estimated that 22 percent, of adults in the Piedmont Triad of North Carolina have poor literacy skills, meaning that they have difficulty with tasks involving simple texts and documents. Purpose: Given this low level of adult literacy, the purpose of this exploratory research study was to analyze the perceptions of North Carolina's adult…

On July 14, 2006, the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) released a study that compared the performance in reading and math of 4th and 8th graders attending private and public schools. According to the NCES study, students attending private schools performed better than students attending public schools.…

Some programs for helping at-risk youth achieve excellent results, while others do not. One reason for program success can be proper management. Mentoring is a promising strategy for helping at-risk youth. Planners who want to create effective mentoring programs should look at the implementation experiences of other youth programs. Evaluations…

This report examines several aspects of secondary education programs for students of limited English proficiency (LEP) in 15 California schools and identifies educational practices and policies that are successfully meeting the needs of LEP students in these schools. Most sites used a similar program design, with one or two periods daily of…

Based on a general guide for conducting program evaluations developed by Quebec's Commission d'evaluation de l'enseignement collegial, this two-part report provides guidelines for evaluating programs of studies leading to an Attestation of College Studies (AEC) certificate in the areas of Business Administration Technology (BAT) and Cooperation.…

A review of the standards developed through 22 national occupational skill standards pilot projects funded by the Departments of Education and Labor focused on how they are being used in education and how to improve their use. Although occupational clusters have long played a role in education, the mix of clusters and the use of them varies widely…

This monograph examines educational programs for students who are gifted and talented in the visual arts, through a review of the literature on gifted/talented education and art education and examination of programming opportunities. Relevant educational history from 1850 to the present is reviewed. The research review encompasses four national…