From July 1995 through September 2001, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and the Ford Foundation (Ford) operated a demonstration of the Quantum Opportunity Program (QOP). QOP offered intensive and comprehensive services to help at-risk youth graduate from high school and enroll in postsecondary education or training. QOP was mainly an…

The General Accounting Office (GAO) surveyed officials in nine federal agencies regarding the following aspects of the employment and training programs they administered: funding levels; types and numbers of participants; services provided; and outcome measures. The 9 agencies were administering 44 programs providing a range of employment and…

This report presents findings from the second year of a multi-year evaluation of the Texas Educator Excellence Grant (TEEG) program and background information about the design and implementation of the District Awards for Teacher Excellence (DATE) program. The TEEG and DATE programs operating in Texas make up the largest state-funded performance…

In July 2001, the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA) agreed to the development of assessment instruments and key performance measures for reporting on student skills, knowledge and understandings in primary science. It directed the newly established Performance Measurement and Reporting Taskforce…

This report describes major activities and accomplishments of the Arkansas Rehabilitation Research & Training Center on Enhancing Employability of Individuals with Disabilities from August 5, 1994 through May 14, 1996. The Center has a 5-year contract in the priority area of enhancing employability of individuals with severe disabilities. The…

This practicum report describes a 15-day in-room suspension strategy designed to reduce the increasing number of principal-initiated student suspensions resulting from inappropriate conduct. The program's distinguishing features entailed a central figure who predetermined the candidates by means of a pre-suspension interview, parental-student…

A study investigated both how teachers' effectiveness in the classroom reflected on their pupils' performance on the Certificate of Primary Education and whether teacher training programs prepared teachers for practical classroom demands. Responses were gathered from questionnaires and unstructured interviews with trained primary school teachers,…

Inner City, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Polaroid Corporation, located in the Roxbury section of Boston. Without the use of public funding, Polaroid created this job training program 17 years ago to provide Boston's unemployed residents with entry into meaningful employment. Training occurs within the framework of an actual…

This action research project implemented and evaluated an intervention for improving student engagement in the learning process. The targeted population consisted of first, third, and fifth grade students in a small, traditional, middle class community, located in central Illinois. Evidence of non-engaged behaviors were documented from teacher…

A study investigated advocacy factors that were influential in enabling a rural school district to expand its gifted program despite greatly diminished state support and a local budget crisis. Parents played a vital role, and relationships between a parent support group, the program coordinator, and the superintendent were also important.…

The study reported here is intended to address both the concerns regarding the lack of successful administrator preparation programs and the need for additional research which can be used to evaluate administrator preparation programs. This study used student-created exit portfolios as the database for a qualitative document analysis of two forms…

The new emphasis on performance-based assessment holds much promise for assessment in physical education, particularly for the assessment of motor skills. Physical educators want to know if students can perform motor skills and use those motor skills in game and activity settings. However, the viability of performance-based assessment as a formal…

Seventeen studies that linked school characteristics and labor market performance were analyzed. Each met five criteria: labor market characteristics of students after they left high school were used as output measures, quality measures of schools were identified as inputs, reasonably sophisticated statistical procedures were used, "hard" measures…

This report recounts the establishment of the Utah Career Ladder Program, reviews findings from prior evaluations of the program, and describes in detail the 1993 evaluation authorized by the Utah State Legislature. The report also covers questions about the impact of the program in general. Chapter 1 provides a history of the Utah Career Ladder…

A workplace literacy partnership project was conducted to upgrade the basic skills and productivity of 287 hourly wage earners of Winamac Spring Company (WSC) in Indiana. WSC paid employee wages for up to 24 hours of training and provided a classroom facility. El-Tip-Wa Adult Learning Center instructional staff provided basic skills training using…