This report focuses on the 15 states of the West (Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming), their ability to educate minorities, and the resulting impact on their workforces and economies. The foundation of the Western U.S. economy rests on…

Workforce projections worldwide show a growing need for people with strong backgrounds in math and science. As the eighth largest economy in the world, California benefits particularly from enterprises in the "STEM" fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). How well California's current public school students are…

This report describes a study conducted by the Community College Research Center (CC RC) that explores the overarching issues affecting community college noncredit workforce education. Following an introduction, the next section explains the methodology of the study, presenting the research questions, the data collection methods, and the analytic…

Employment has long been held to be an important deterrent against poverty, and work is a core component of a range of federal efforts to improve the economic well-being of low-income families. However, recent trends in earnings and research both confirm that work alone is not sufficient to prevent poverty. While there is compelling evidence that…

The development of human capital has been identified as the most important component of all the factors employed in production economics. Since independence in 1960, Nigeria has placed great emphasis on training and education for human capital formation. However, the education process as the primary means of developing human resource has failed,…

Needs assessment plays an important role in training and human performance improvement efforts, but the literature contains little research on this topic. This study extended previous research on the Performance Analysis for Training (PAT) model of needs assessment by examining its implementation to determine environmental and occupational health…

This paper aims to present an overview of language testing in Thailand. Language testing practices in the past are also reviewed. Attention is paid to the washback effects of language tests, the use of language tests in school admissions, questions of test validity, the emergence of standardized tests, the influence of societal values on testing…

The "Core Indicators of Effectiveness Report" delineates the performance of Wyoming's community colleges as measured by the 14 indicators set forth by the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) and adopted by the seven Wyoming community colleges and the Wyoming Community College Commission in 2002. These indicators, while…

To address key policy and programmatic questions and help improve student and system performance, states must work to link data across the early childhood, postsecondary and workforce (P-20/workforce) spectrum and share this information with appropriate stakeholders. This issue brief highlights current efforts in California, Florida, Indiana, and…

In 1997, New York State lawmakers passed the Universal Prekindergarten (UPK) legislation, a bold new approach to early childhood education. It established new part-day Pre-K programs that were free and open to all four-year-olds. Today, the state invests $414 million annually in Pre-K, which serves more than 100,000 children in public schools and…

The impact of crises on organizations has been stronger than ever. This article explores the role of organizational learning in crisis management, an area that has received little attention from HRD community. Recognizing the dynamics and interconnectedness of crisis management, organizational learning, and organizational change, the article…

The challenge of combining research and practice in HRD [Human Resource Development] led to continuing debate concerning who are scholar-practitioners and how they combine research and practice in the workplace. A study of seven scholar-practitioners provides some answers for HRD scholar-practitioners on connecting research and practice. The…

Since 2003, the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning has reported that the number of fully prepared teachers assigned to California's classrooms has increased significantly due in part to the efforts of federal, state and local education policy-makers. As Chart I demonstrates, the overall number of underprepared teachers--those who have…

With competition to attract quality students into career and technical education programs and many entrants to the workforce inadequately prepared with employability skills, some community colleges have found a way to answer industry's call--they are launching SkillsUSA chapters on campus. In this article, the author features SkillsUSA, a…

This article integrates the literature on group interaction process analysis and group learning, providing a framework for understanding how patterns of interaction develop. The model proposes how adaptive, generative, and transformative learning processes evolve and vary in their functionality. Environmental triggers for learning, the group's…