This article examines the sustained impact of a workshop series held to support faculty engagement in program assessment in the College of Education at California State University, Long Beach. The four-part series, held monthly during spring 2008, was intended to enhance faculty understanding of their role in assessment of student learning at the…

Purpose: Research-intensive universities have special challenges in providing their students with civic education, particularly education that is rooted in the curriculum. Their efforts are important to the overall effort to promote education "for the common good" at colleges and universities because of their stature within the higher education…

A group of low-performing schools received additional state funds to improve achievement as part of California's Immediate Intervention/Underperforming Schools Program (II/USP). A mixed-method evaluation was conducted to determine whether II/USP schools outperformed similar non-II/USP schools, how teachers and administrators understood resources…

This report synthesizes first-phase evaluation results of the Teenage Parent Demonstration program. This program, whose cornerstone is case management, responded to three concerns: (1) rising welfare caseloads; (2) persistently high rates of teenage pregnancies and births; and (3) the high probability that teenage parents will go onto welfare and…

The purpose of this action research study was threefold: (1) to assess the climate of an elementary school in which the principal, assistant principal, and 67 percent of the teaching staff were new; (2) to develop and implement a plan for improvement; and (3) to reevaluate the school climate to determine whether improvement had occurred. The…

The formative evaluation of the first year's implementation of the Enrichment Kindergarten program of the Des Moines, Iowa Independent Community School District involved 12 half-day enrichment sessions at six schools. Approximately 278 kindergarten students were served. Results of the evaluation indicated that over 96 percent of the budgeted…

This Title VII program completed its second year of a 3 year continuation project to provide students with limited English proficiency instruction designed to help them achieve English language proficiency. The program also included a staff development component. Students were in Lau categories A, B, and C (non-English speaking, English as a…

The effect of commercial coaching on Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores was analyzed, using 1974-1977 test results of 2,500 non-coached students and 1,568 enrollees in two coaching schools. (The Stanley H. Kaplan Educational Center, Inc., and the Test Preparation Center, Inc.). Multiple regression analysis was used to control for student…

The purpose of this paper is to present findings from a program evaluation conducted to examine the effectiveness of the Schools Attuned program in a north Texas school district. Schools Attuned was developed by a professor of pediatrics, Dr. Mel Levine (2002), as a professional development model to train teachers to identify cognitive and…

Belief in the importance of school readiness has mobilized a broad coalition of concerned stakeholders to become organized and act. As a result, a number of programs, policies, and materials have been developed to improve the readiness of children and of schools. The purpose of this article is to examine the context in which these efforts are…

In this paper, the authors first give a brief account of their work with teachers to develop formative assessment practices, including a brief outline of the quantitative results and the impact of formative assessment project. They give a full account of the changes in classroom practice that the project schools developed, together with some…

In addition to acquiring an appropriate undergraduate degree and passing a subject area ExCET exam, preservice teachers in Texas are required to pass the Professional Development Examination for the Certification of Educators in Texas (ExCET PD) to become certified teachers. This study was designed to examine the effects of a 5-week WebCT online…

In China, after many years, the current status and challenges of e-learning development in higher education have been gradually understood. The educational technology centre (ECT) serves as the key unit to promote e-learning initiatives, but the performance of some centres still trails their foreign counterparts. Under such conditions, the project…

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…

In this article, the author discusses two major conclusions about initial preparation programs in the United States. On the upside, a good deal of energy and hard work is being poured into attempts to revitalize preparation programs. On the downside, people are not seeing much in the way of real improvement; that is, most of the change is on the…