This article had four goals. First, the authors identified a set of general challenges and questions that a life-span theory of development should address. Second, they presented a comprehensive account of their Motivational Theory of Life-Span Development. They integrated the model of optimization in primary and secondary control and the…

Quality Counts 2010 is the 14th edition of "Education Week's" annual report card on American public education as viewed through the lens of the states' education policies and outcomes. As in the past, this year's edition is built on twin foundations: (1) the detailed data collection and analysis of the Editorial Projects in Education…

The ability to use literature effectively is essential to provide context and interpret results for any research project. Undergraduate students in geographical disciplines are regularly required to produce research reports, yet formal training in effective literature use is minimal. In this study students were taught effective literature use…

Once comprised of local, sole-proprietor ownership, the nation's for-profit institutions now range from small, privately owned schools to publicly traded corporations. Enrollment in such colleges has grown far faster than in traditional higher-education institutions. Moreover, during the 2009-2010 school year, for-profit colleges received almost…

This report examines a decade's worth of research on school vouchers and concludes that vouchers have had no clear positive effect on student academic achievement, and mixed outcomes for students overall. Effects on graduation rates, parental satisfaction, public school achievement and cost to taxpayers are discussed. The report also notes that…

This paper examines how this mega-university offers increasing access to cost-effective, equitable and flexible higher education by analyzing data from primary and secondary sources, identifies challenges impacting the continued growth of enrollment in distance education, and outlines opportunities for increasing access to higher education through…

The trends and findings from a descriptive analysis of 25 years of research studies examining the effectiveness of technology to support the compositional writing of students with learning and academic disabilities are presented. A corpus of 85 applied research studies of writing technology effectiveness was identified from among 249 items in the…

This report offers suggestions for starting and supporting faculty inquiry groups on individual campuses. Topics include: (1) The Power of Inquiry; Challenging Questions and Powerful Evidence; (2) The Power of Community: Inquiry as a Collaborative Process of Improvement; (3) Suggestions for Starting and Supporting a Faculty Inquiry Group; and (4)…

For a variety of reasons described in the paper, improving the performance of urban school districts is more difficult today than it was several decades ago. Yet economic and social changes make performance improvement especially important today. Two quite different bodies of research provide ideas for improving the performance of urban school…

The American higher education enterprise has the capacity and fortitude to confront many of the country's most pressing energy and environmental challenges. Many institutions and state college systems are using campus resources to carry out grassroots environmental initiatives. These activities have yielded important environmental, educational,…

Connecticut Women's Education and Legal Fund (CWEALF) is a statewide non-profit organization dedicated to empowering women, girls and their families to achieve equal opportunities in their personal and professional lives. Members are guided by their commitment to feminism, diversity, empowerment, personal responsibility and self-sufficiency,…

The principal's desk is a crowded place at the end of the year. Memos from the superintendent, school board meeting minutes, parent messages, and reports on many aspects of the school and its functions make the desk appear to be the school's dumping ground. Among these reports is the librarian's annual report--a summation of the year's goals,…

This article reports on a controversial program that rewards high student achievement with fast food. When Cathy Griffith, a fourth-grader at Red Bug Elementary School in Seminole County (Florida) Public Schools, made the honor roll last November, she also read a message on her report card sleeve that she was eligible for a prize for her good…

There is much variability in coach preparation across the United States. No one model of coach development seems to fit the needs of all levels of sport competition or the wide variety of consumers. Moreover, there are many entities involved in prescribing requirements such as national governing bodies, state legislatures and boards of education,…

In 2000, the National Reading Panel compiled a definitive report of effective methods for reading instruction. As a population that generally demonstrates numerous problems with reading, students with emotional and behavioral disorders may benefit from the National Reading Panel's published findings. This review examined and compared the number…