This guide was designed to help state and local education agencies conduct needs assessments to better understand the strengths, challenges, and needs unique to schools serving American Indian students. It includes surveys developed collaboratively with communities that serve American Indian students to reflect the most relevant topics. Using…

This study investigated the frequency of community participation and level of assistance needed to perform domestic and safety skills for individuals with severe disabilities who live successfully in the community, based on type of residence and hours of in-home support provided. Participants included residential specialists from small community…

Throughout the literature, leadership and culture are intertwined. Organizational and leadership theorists alike hold that a leader's perceptions and behaviors are significant, if not primary, determinants of an organization's culture and climate. Given that the assistant principal is exceeded in positional authority only by the principal at a…

The steps involved in conducting a valid needs assessment are described and some problems to be avoided are discussed. Needs assessment begins with a set of educational goals. It is important that community opinion be obtained regarding the goals to ensure that they represent the interests of all involved in the educational process. Once the goals…

Researchers and policymakers are increasingly interested in the issue of school accountability. Despite this, program standards for afterschool programs are not as fully developed as they are in other fields. This study bridges that gap and presents the results from a study that identifies benchmarks and indicators for high quality afterschool…

This is a 5-booklet instructional kit focusing on practical ways to assess the health and social needs of children and youth in local communities. The needs assessment model described in the kit was developed and pretested in Boston, Massachusetts. The first booklet, "Learning About Your Community's Needs," provides a framework for the…

Divided into six chapters, this user's manual accompanies a battery of tests developed by the Educational Progress in Careers (EPIC) project which was organized to develop and validate a system for evaluating career, economic, and community education projects in Florida schools. Chapter 1 presents an action checklist of steps to be followed by…

The purpose of the California State Library-sponsored project, InFoPeople, is to enhance access to information resources by providing points of public access to the Internet in public libraries throughout the state of California. This Stage 1 report represents an initial set of findings and issues related to the InFoPeople project and provides the…

The results of a survey distributed to teachers in the West Area of the Minneapolis Public Schools concerning their preferences in the school setting indicate that teachers: (1) differ in their preferences for instructional settings, (2) prefer flexibility and variety in school curriculum, schedules, and instructional methods, (3) desire the…

The James Irvine Foundation launched the Communities Organizing Resources to Advance Learning (CORAL) initiative in 1999 with the goal of improving the academic achievement of children in the lowest-performing schools in five California cities. In 2004, CORAL adopted a more targeted approach toward reaching this goal by integrating a regular…