Few researchers support the belief that a school superintendent can drive improvements in student achievement. The Science and Mathematics Achievement Required for Tomorrow (SMART) Consortium was formed in northeast Ohio in 1998 with the belief that superintendents can have a measurable effect on student learning. The goal of this collaboration…

The Basic Skills Report for California Community Colleges (2007) stresses the importance of comprehensive training and development opportunities for all faculty (tenured and part-time), administrators and staff members who work with underprepared students. With such a large number of academically underprepared students entering the community…

As video-based instructional materials become available to distance learners to learn practical skills at a distance, it is important to assess the instructional effectiveness of these materials and to understand how students respond to them. This paper is the second part of a larger exploratory study that assessed the instructional effectiveness…

This article analyzes the findings of a pilot project conducted in 2008-2009 as a partnership between University Studies, Portland State University's interdisciplinary general education program, and the University's Russian Flagship Language Partner Program. The project proposes a new approach of integrating non-English speakers' language skills,…

The current article presents a model of a summer and after-school psychoeducational intervention for children ages 4 to 11 and parents offered at an African American church. The IMPPACT program may be best described as a community-based program that applies salient dimensions of African American religiosity and cultural values to the cultivation…

This descriptive study of the twenty regional Education Service Centers in Texas is an exploratory analysis of programs and services that promote school improvement. Data collected from each service center website enabled the researcher to determine which programs and services are available to school districts and also allowed the researcher to…

Communication is an important input in development. The role of communication is socio-economic and cultural development at national and international levels. Development is considered an important component of progress. The progressive change is described as alterations in awareness, motivation and participation of the individuals. With the…

The Indiana State University Professional Development Schools (ISU PDS) Partnership sprang from the convergence of two strong needs: (1) the need for real life practice in the way of extended clinical experiences for teacher education students in schools of practice; and (2) the need on the part of the schools in the community to have access to…

The process of developing innovative mobile approaches to informal and formal learning is challenging, not least in needing to satisfy stakeholders with diverse interests in the technology, the pedagogy and the overall system. Some approaches to evaluation may focus on examining the nature and quality of learning that occurs, while other methods…

Students participated in a 2-week intensive program in the city of Puebla, Mexico. The experience included university course work, cultural field trips, and teaching and observing in Mexican elementary schools. It also included many opportunities to interact and participate in daily life in Puebla. The study examined changes in attitudes about…

Background: School-based interventions are critical for enhancing the health of youth. The "Goals for Health (GFH)" school-based project was a goal-setting and life-skills intervention conducted in rural areas to increase self-efficacy, knowledge, and positive behaviors related to healthy eating. The intervention was peer-led with high…

The Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) supports projects that are designed to reform teacher and principal compensation. Initially, the Department of Education (the Department) made two rounds of awards, in 2006 and 2007, to a total of 34 grantees. The specific goals of TIF were to reward teachers and principals for improving student achievement,…

Purpose: The purpose of this self-reflective paper is to focus on practical efforts to combat inequality and foster intercultural dialogue in education. It introduces "knowledge alliances", a type of social practice open for education technologies. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is structured in a theoretical and an empirical…

Purpose: This paper aims to: extend the concept of "The learning organization" to "The learning community," especially disadvantaged communities; demonstrate how leaders in a migrant community can achieve positive change at the personal, professional, team and community learning levels through participatory action learning and…

hapTEL, an interdisciplinary project funded by two UK research councils from 2007 to 2011, involves a large interdisciplinary team (with undergraduate and post-graduate student participants) which has been developing and evaluating a virtual learning system within an HE healthcare education setting, working on three overlapping strands. Strand 1…