The Governor's Educator Excellence Grant (GEEG) program was federally- and state-funded and provided three-year grants to schools to design and implement performance pay plans from the 2005-06 to 2007-08 school years. GEEG was implemented in 99 high poverty, high performing Texas public schools. This report builds on the previous GEEG evaluation…

Rigorous research provides information that will allow other schools and districts to select interventions that have a scientifically based track record of effectiveness. All Striving Reader grants include the mandate to evaluate literacy intervention(s) targeted to adolescents who are reading significantly below grade level. Although all studies…

This research is a follow up to a similar study published by the Center for Rural Pennsylvania in 2003 in which researchers examined alternative education policies and practices among Pennsylvania school districts. The current study extended the previous research to include information on the perceptions of administrators and teachers on the…

This paper reports on the re-design of the Advanced Certificate in Education (ACE) programme, which is offered by the University of Pretoria through distance education (DE) to teachers in rural South Africa. In 2007, a team re-designed the programme with the goal of promoting access, quality, and student support. The team included an independent…

The Project for Adult College Education (PACE) is a general education core curriculum designed for working adults. PACE students receive approximately half the classroom hours in each subject area that they would in a traditional classroom. The balance of time is devoted to viewing course-related instructional television and participating in…

Questioning and Understanding To Improve Learning and Thinking (QUILT) was designed to increase teacher use of effective classroom questioning techniques and procedures across all grade levels (K-12) and subject areas. QUILT offers faculty the opportunity to focus on the process of effective questioning for a full year and features a process for…

This Digest discusses the increase in the number of immigrant secondary school students who come to the United States with limited education and effective programs for serving this student population. For these students to succeed in school, they must learn to read, write, understand, and speak English, develop academic literacy in English to make…

Alternative instructional delivery options such as self-paced and flexible enrollment courses are designed to increase enrollment, promote retention, and encourage student success without lowering academic standards. The Fast Track Associate's Degree Program, developed by a team of faculty, staff, and administrators at Richland Community College,…

Prepared by the Outcomes Assessment Task Force (OATF) at Owens Community College (OCC), in Ohio, this document describes the philosophy guiding assessment at OCC and provides a non-prescriptive guide for implementing an assessment plan. Part I provides an introduction to outcomes assessment at OCC, including OCC's assessment philosophy, a list of…

The first-year report of the El Paso (Texas) Family Literacy for Parents of Preschoolers program describes the program and evaluates its progress toward stated objectives. The introductory section addresses the following topics: demographic and literacy characteristics of the community; the needs assessment; project design; and objectives for…

A 10-week practicum intervention was designed to reduce deficiencies in 10 kindergarten children in southwest Florida with poor fine motor skills. The intervention consisted of daily instruction and weekly activity tests. Activities included drawing, tracing, cutting with scissors, pasting, molding with clay, various games, lacing, weaving, and…

For twenty years, the DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) model has been used for the design of occupational programs at the secondary and postsecondary levels as well as the design of training programs for business and industry. Over the past five years, the Maryland DACUM Resource Center project has disseminated the DACUM model among the community…

Data were collected to determine how Project Head Start can ensure that (1) local programs will provide services to the maximum number of children and families possible; (2) the children and families served will be those who most need the program; and (3) those needing and receiving services will most benefit from the program. Information was…

When formative feedback in teacher evaluation programs results in a summative decision, teacher evaluation programs fulfill both formative and summative needs. Teacher evaluation programs that fulfill both formative and summative needs should include components such as consistent and just policies and procedures; evaluation criteria that agree…

The report describes activities conducted during a 12-month baseline period preceding a series of longitudinal studies of the costs and effects of various types of early intervention with handicapped children conducted by the Early Intervention Research Institute at Utah State University. A systems theory perspective forms the theoretical base for…