In April 2011, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) hosted a Forum, Emphasizing Evidence-Based Programs for Children and Youth, to convene the nation's leading practitioners and researchers with experience using and evaluating an array of evidence-based…

This study seeks to improve the contributions of performance consultants, instructional design consultants, and training consultants by explaining the effect that several variables have on trust as a mediator to relationship commitment within the context of the client-consultant relationship. The participants were 228 college students from two…

To reform a special education teacher preparation program can be gratifying, difficult, complex, political, and urgently needed. The Monarch Center, a federally funded technical assistance center, was established to guide and support minority-serving institutions in their efforts to improve their teacher preparation programs. Four guidelines…

Certified nursing assistants (CNAs) perform an important role in the long-term care system because they provide the majority of paid care to nursing facility residents. Unfortunately, annual CNA turnover often exceeds 100 percent nationally. Many factors account for this, including stressful working conditions, low pay, and limited benefits. The…

Efficiency in the 1980's, quality in the 1990's, compliance in the 2010's - private sector management techniques and mechanisms find their way to public services. This paper facilitates the understanding of how compliance management controls can improve operations and prevent or detect failure or wrong doing. The last few years' empirical research…

The Grantmakers for Education (GFE) Institute attracted more than 60 grantmakers from national, corporate, community and family foundations, with interests in systems and programs from early learning through postsecondary completion. And while attendees arrived with diverse experiences and expertise in grantmaking to support policy change, they…

The purpose of this literature and field review is to understand previous efforts at scaling up performance assessments for use across districts and states. Performance assessments benefit students and teachers by providing more opportunities for students to demonstrate their knowledge and complex skills, by providing teachers with better…

Since the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) era many program improvement schools were prescribed Professional Learning Communities (PLC) professional development as a corrective action by their respective Local Education Agency (LEA). Despite the adoption and implementation of many corrective action measures (including PLCs) recommended by LEA's, the…

Background: Improving the home environment and parenting practices to support children's early development and learning is a key focus of many. Home visiting is one potential strategy to improve the home environment and parenting; however, more data about current programmatic efforts is needed, especially for children with multiple risks living in…

As Vietnam higher education has explored ways to integrate into the international community, professional development of faculty is becoming a key element. However, there is a significant shortage of faculty development (FD) in Vietnam, resulting in a large gap in quality, quantity, and qualifications between Vietnamese faculty and their…

Professional development (PD) for graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) has been repeatedly emphasized as an essential component of future faculty training. Nonetheless, attempts to integrate PD programs into graduate curriculum are met with resistance from some stakeholders. The authors investigated stakeholders' perceptions of a novel GTA PD…

In this article, Robert D. Reason defines personal and social responsibility as a five-component outcome of college, presents a case for thinking about educating for personal and social responsibility through the lens of campus climate that eschews the hunt for a single intervention, and encourages the marshaling of multiple resources in multiple…

New Extension educators experience a steep learning curve when attempting to develop effective Extension programs. Formative evaluation is helpful to new, and experienced, Extension educators in determining the changes necessary for making programs more effective. Formative evaluation is an essential part of program evaluation. However, its use…

The fundamental concepts of Achieving the Dream--using evidence to develop and evaluate strategies for improving student learning and success--are also important to successful efforts to meet accreditation requirements. Following the Achieving the Dream approach can help community colleges organize and document improvement efforts in ways that are…

This article presents recent refinements to implementation constructs and frameworks. It updates and clarifies the frequently cited study conducted by the National Implementation Research Network that introduced these frameworks for application in diverse endeavors. As such, it may serve as a historical marker in the rapidly developing science and…