Educational policy does not always translate into programs that are consistent with the policymakers' original intentions. This paper presents findings of a case study that followed the course of a policy developed at the state level to teacher practice at the classroom level. Set in a western state, the study collected data through document…

This report records in outline form major points concerning the emerging field of environmental scanning, noting particularly activities at the University of Minnesota. It includes definitions of environmental scanning; a description of its major components; and an outline of procedural steps to implement it. Further, it outlines the planning…

From an institutional point of view, educational technology is a means to an end rather than an end in itself. Success in deploying a new technology therefore requires careful definition of the institution's goals and careful investigation of the merits of the strategies and tactics used to achieve those goals. This paper begins by listing the…

"Understanding World Agriculture" is a 3-year project (1984-1987) designed to mobilize resources of the Cooperative Extension Service (CES) to enhance citizen understanding of political, economic, technical, and social factors relating to world problems of hunger and poverty and to the stake of the United States in international…

This plan provides information on the efforts of Arizona's Estrella Mountain Community College (EMCC) to evaluate its effectiveness in achieving organizational mission and purpose. The plan contains the following information: (1) a discussion of EMCC's institutional effectiveness efforts to date, indicating that the college's Plan for…

Recommendations of a task force, directed to study ways to upgrade teacher preparation programs to make the course of study more rigorous and effective, became mandatory for constituent institutions once they were adopted by the Board of Governors and the General Assembly of a southeastern state. This provided an opportunity to study the process…

In discussing the improvement of schools by using research and development findings, two different outcomes of a change program are considered. One is the effective implementation of new programs through use of available knowledge. The second is the broader issue of achieving school improvement through making the organization more healthy, the…

The criteria used for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award can provide community colleges with a strategic tool for college planning, management, assessment, and accreditation. The Criteria focus on two measurable objectives for institutional effectiveness: the delivery of educational value to current and future students through instruction…

Any attempts to improve excellence and equity in our schools must be predicated on the self-confident assumption that our schools can make a critical difference in the lives of children and young adults. Four propositions are offered as to what we know about school improvement: (1) public schools, individual classrooms, and school systems can and…

This innovative session provides a vehicle for facilitating dialogue and practical application of effective tools for linking human resource development (HRD) strategies with business/organizational strategies. The primary goal is to provide an increased understanding of and skill using practical, research-based approaches and techniques to build…

In 1993, the Universidad Autonoma de Santo Domingo (UASD), in the Dominican Republic, and New York's LaGuardia Community College (LaGCC) entered into a partnership to establish a series of community colleges in the Dominican Republic. The colleges were designed to foster economic growth, prepare graduates for transfer to the UASD to complete…

Providing a theoretical background behind the institutional effectiveness efforts at Jefferson State Community College (JSCC), in Birmingham, Alabama, this document describes an institutional effectiveness model devised by James O. Nichols and its application at JSCC. The Nichols Institutional Effectiveness (NIE) paradigm is a practical guide to…

In 1984 the Commission of the European Communities (EEC) disbursed some $1.437 billion in support of a range of retraining, relocation, and job creation measures intended to help youth. The EEC's policy toward vocationalization was first defined in 1963. In the 1970s the commission began to reassess its reason for existence, which led it to…

This paper presents a grounded theory of educational partnership process. A case-study design was used to describe aspects of the partnership process of the Cooperative Alliance for Gifted Education (CAGE) during part of its second year of operation. Three organizations served as partners: a large urban school district, a state university, and a…

This essay presents an approach to substantial and long-range curriculum change in three stages: planning, implementation, and evaluation. Planning, to which three quarters of the paper is devoted, is defined as a deliberate, collaborative, continuous process of determining and providing for the most effective manner to implement a change. The…