Situated in the heart of the fertile San Joaquin Valley twenty miles north of Fresno, the city of Madera has a population of 56,710 people. Agriculture is the driving force behind the local economy; the area produces more than 100 crops including raisin grapes, almonds, figs, pistachios, alfalfa, corn, milk, cattle and poultry. The total value of…

The purpose of this study was to use the "KSH analytic framework", a blend of the work of Kotter (1996), Senge (2006), and Heifetz (1994, 2002), as a tool to provide insight into the organizational change process that, when considered, might result in lasting and significant school change. Leadership, vision, teamwork, and action implementation…

The following study was conducted using a mixed-methodology study design. The purpose of this study was to determine if a focused school renewal plan would increase student achievement at Rural Elementary. In order to accomplish this goal, baseline research data was gathered using the What Works in Schools Online Survey (Marzano, 2003) to…

Ongoing, strategic family-school partnering (FSP) is an essential component of every educational community. FSP is a multi-dimensional process in which schools, families, and communities engage in shared actions to ensure a child's academic, social, and emotional success. With this text, the authors intend to offer a practical guide that…

Perhaps one of the fastest ways to improve the quality of out-of-school time programs would be to replace practices that individuals know do not work with practices that appear to be more effective. In this brief, the authors highlight lessons from an expanding body of knowledge about specific program practices that should be avoided or minimized…

This case study focused on a school action plan, using a planning and implementation process that focused on improving stakeholder involvement and responsibility for student reading achievement at Eisenberg Elementary School. This study examined the impact of the school action process on the development of a new plan compared to other traditional…

This dissertation examines localization of Open Educational Resources (OER) in Himalayan community technology centers of Nepal. Specifically, I examine strategies and practices that local knowledge-workers utilize in order to localize educational content for the disparate needs, interests, and ability-levels of learners in rural villages. This…

The GlobaLIS Project intends to attain the globalization of Japanese library and information science (LIS) professional education by defining the requirements for internationally transparent and harmonized educational programs for LIS professionals. We asked three research questions in a stepwise manner: (1) What are the basic requirements for…

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there was a relationship between school leaders' perceptions regarding High Involvement Model variables as components of their organizations, including power, knowledge, information, leadership, instructional guidance, rewards, and resources, and the leaders' ability to successfully use the IBM…

In moving health and social service programs from planning into action, it is essential to understand the extent to which the knowledge gained from research should influence the actions taken by organizations and agencies that provide services (e.g., government, nongovernment organizations [NGOs]). The complexity of the challenges in translating…

This document is part of a series of guides designed to help school district leaders address one of the toughest challenges in American education: dropout rates of 30 percent nationwide, 50 percent in many big cities, and 60 percent or more in the lowest-performing schools. This second guide in the series offers a detailed examination of the six…

This report uses the three-component framework to categorize and synthesize major recommendations to Congress for the ESEA (Elementary and Secondary Education Act) reauthorization and briefly analyzes them from the perspective of the third component. The analysis illuminates fundamental gaps in the prevailing recommendations. In particular, this…

The process of strategic planning wears out institutions. Strategic planning, pursued with high purpose and energy, is enervating and exhausting. In this article, the author describes the value-added work of trustees in high-performing boards and discusses the role boards of trustees play as the process of continuous strategic planning unfolds.…

In this multi-method case study, the authors explore the success of school reform in Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS), whose school reform combines a portfolio strategy and a managed instruction approach. Portfolio strategy is a term used to describe an approach that decentralizes resources and decision-making to school sites--increasingly in…

Instructional strategies aimed at improving achievement of low performing student subgroups in need of support were selected by the District Improvement Advisory Committee, so that WCPSS could exit District Improvement status. Impact of each initiative, which often included teacher training and coaching is examined in this implementation report.…