This paper explores enabling conditions for scaling high-quality project-based learning (PBL) to understand factors that influence how PBL spreads, whether and how it can be sustained and the extent to which it informs meaningful change in schools. We report on a year-long collaboration across three research projects. Each project team analyzed…

The Clinical Practice Assessment System (CPAS), developed in response to teacher preparation program accreditation requirements, represents a paradigm shift of one university toward data-based decision-making in teacher education programs. The new assessment system is a scale aligned with INTASC Standards, which allows for observation and…

Any plan to create a communications/governance structure to empower stakeholders must address several questions: rationale, potential advantages and disadvantages, problems to be considered, format, committee structure and responsibilities, and evaluation techniques. Includes 10 references. (MLH)

Utilizing nine schools located in the San Francisco Bay area, a study was conducted to examine the patterns by which microcomputers are accepted and implemented in high schools. Rather than the educational or social effects of this new academic resource, the study focused on: (1) the process of the behaviors and decisions leading to the…

A comparison is made between two broad strategies for instituting reform in secondary schools: the bottom-up, process-oriented approach typified by the California School Improvement Program and the top-down content-oriented approach typified by the more recent reform effort in California, the School Reform approach. The comparison was made in…

Kamehameha Schools (Honolulu, Hawaii), a privately funded program with approximately 2,000 students and 175 teachers grades 7-12, is implementing a school-wide curriculum evaluation program. As part of this program, the departments of mathematics, science, social studies, counseling, human relations, speech and English collaborated in the…

The findings of 13 studies of educational change, leadership, and decision-making are summarized in this report. Conducted by the staff of the Project on Administration and Organization for Instruction at the University of Wisconsin Center for Education Research, the studies utilized data gathered in over 100 middle, junior, and senior high…

This guide is designed to assist districts in developing and implementing Curriculum-Based Vocational Assessment (CBVA) as an integral part of the career/vocational program for students with disabilities. The document begins with a User's Guide that describes each part of the guide and makes suggestions for its use. Part 1 explains what CBVA is…

The evaluation process provides valuable information so that practitioners may share and benchmark their efforts to improve and enhance the quality of the educational reform initiative called tech prep. Evaluation should be part of every phase of a tech prep initiative, from needs assessment to completion. A tech prep program is typically at one…

Designed to provide administrators of occupation programs at the secondary and post-secondary level with a systems approach to administration, this administrators' guide brings together administrative and leadership tasks and responsibilities that must be considered by administrators when developing programs. The system presented in the guide is…

The management information system (MIS) development project for California's Regional Occupational Centers and Programs (ROC/Ps) was conducted in 3 phases over a 12-month period. Phase I involved a literature review and field study to match MIS design features and development strategy with existing conditions in ROC/Ps. A decision support system…

Part of an information package developed to help eliminate sex stereotyping and to promote positive parental attitudes concerning nontraditional careers for their children, this leader's guide contains information to help Pennsylvania teachers promote and carry out a workshop to increase parents' ability to assist their children with career…

An examination is made of two separate programs in neighboring communities in western Massachusetts which have approached the development of a teacher center in essentially different ways. One of the programs has, since its inception, responded to the need for teacher-generated and controlled programs by providing inservice activities, staff…

The Instructional Support System for Occupational Education (ISSOE) Dissemination Project was initiated to conduct research on the roles of individuals associated with the management of ISSOE. The goal was understanding the management concerns surrounding ISSOE dissemination. Phase 2 activities were designed and carried out to fulfill four major…

As the sun, moon, and stars helped sea captains to navigate, policy (defined as a formalized idea to encourage change) indicates general direction and speed but does not establish a specific approach to achieve implementation. Formal and informal policies have advantages and disadvantages. These are steps in navigating policy formation: identify…