It is frequently assumed that the student experience, and, by implication, student program satisfaction, improves over the course of a university education. A four-year panel study of students at a large commuter university indicates some improvements in assessments of professor performance and GPA between first and fourth year; however,…

This chapter summarizes theoretical perspectives and research findings on developmental education, and emphasizes the importance of considering students' voices and experiences in determining how best to facilitate growth and development in college.

Using college transcripts, we separate the effects of remedial coursework from high school preparation. For two-year colleges, taking remedial classes was "not" associated with less academic success. In four-year colleges, there "are" negative effects of remedial coursework, but many minority students who complete a bachelor's…

This article examines the relationships between perceptions of authenticity and alignment on study approach and learning outcome. Senior students of a vocational training program performed an authentic assessment and filled in a questionnaire about the authenticity of various assessment characteristics and the alignment between the assessment and…

In this article, Linda Chisholm discusses the potential of ee-learning to address some of the endemic problems of college campuses. In an era of large campuses and large classes, students are removed from the positive examples once provided by faculty who lived in the campus community. The result is as evident in the woeful skills of some college…

A common strategy employed by wealthy industrial nations for dealing with short-term skill deficits is to recruit internationally; such was the case, around the millennium, when a teacher supply crisis occurred in the United Kingdom (UK). That immediate crisis is now over; yet irrespective of peaks and troughs, international teacher migration is…

This monograph describes Supplemental Instruction, a student assistance program designed to improve the academic success of college freshmen based on the idea that if students are not being successful in courses then perhaps colleges should change the way courses are taught. Supplemental Instruction (SI) utilizes regularly scheduled, out-of-class,…

The Technology Enhanced Elementary and Middle School Science II project (TEEMSS), funded by the National Science Foundation, produced 15 inquiry-based instructional science units for teaching in grades 3-8. Each unit uses computers and probeware to support students' investigations of real-world phenomena using probes (e.g., for temperature or…

This product checklist can be used to determine whether a particular workplace literacy product (such as a series of instructional workbooks, curriculum guides, or computerized instructional systems), follows best practice and will meet the needs of a particular business firm and build the productive capacity of its employees. The checklist was…

Traditional research on community college transfer students tracks students from the community college to the transfer institution, comparing the performance of students in various cohorts, such as demographic groups, majors in different curricula, and graduates versus early transfers. While these studies can provide interesting information, they…

Developed by the Iowa Department of Education, North Iowa Area Community College, and Hawkeye Community College (Iowa), this booklet presents the tech prep model for articulation efforts among all educational entities, business, industry, labor, and communities in Iowa. Following a list of committee members working on the model and graphs of the…

In this study, a programmatic decision-making framework called the consensus marker-outcome variable system (CMOVS) was developed as a result of a comprehensive "meta-review" and synthesis of research on variables considered by experts to be important to learning for all students, including those with special needs or those at risk of failing. The…

This manual describes an effective, cost- and time-efficient approach to basic education and vocational training for adults. The approach was developed during a pilot project in Massachusetts that featured the following: capitalizing on students' interests, hands-on vocational training, the expectation that students' motivation to learn a…

This handbook documents the comprehensive evaluation and training system that is being used with Indiana's adult basic education programs. It consists of a set of instruments to assess the effectiveness of ABE programs and a series of workshops to train program providers to carry out the evaluation. Two introductory sections contain a guide to the…

This issue, the second of a two-part series on gender equity, presents strategies that nontraditional programs around the country have found to be helpful in combating the problems of educational and occupational segregation by sex. Described in detail is the Outreach Equity Non-Traditional Program located at the Florida Advanced Technology Center…