This occasional paper of the Centre for Education Policy and Practice outlines how the National School Improvement Tool, developed by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) in collaboration with the Queensland Department of Education, Training and Employment is being used in Australian schools. The Tool is grounded in international…

Teacher preparation programs nationwide struggle to meet rigorous national standards, particularly as they relate to the assessment standard of the National Council of Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). There are many issues which make decisions about program improvement complex, often confusing and frustrating faculty. These include the…

Doctoral programs in the humanities and related social sciences are characterized by high attrition and long times to degree. In 1991 the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation launched the Graduate Education Initiative (GEI) to improve the quality of graduate programs and in turn reduce attrition and shorten time-to-degree. Over a 10-year period, the…

School leaders' values and dispositions impact the quality of education in their schools. Effective schools and appropriate leadership dispositions must be assessed and standardized models must be developed to give direction for future growth. The accrediting agencies and the college of education at a mid-sized state university in a southern state…

There are some important ambiguities in discussions about the implications of "evidence-based practice", both for educational research and for the work of teachers. In this paper we explore several of these through examining the Evidence-based Practice in Science Education (EPSE) study--part of the Teaching and Learning Research…

Both nationally and within the State of California, it is unlikely that those children most susceptible to lead exposure are adequately screened for blood lead levels. New and creative approaches are necessary to reach these individuals. In-home phlebotomy was employed to test blood lead levels of 128 San Diego households containing Latino…

The Interagency Working Group on U.S. Government-Sponsored International Exchanges and Training (IAWG) was created through Executive Order 13055 in 1997 to recommend to the President measures for improving the coordination, efficiency, and effectiveness of U.S. government-sponsored international exchanges and training. The IAWG's four goals for…

This study documents gaps in the way in which Medicaid meets its responsibilities to provide access to health care for children and offers recommendations on what should be done about the gaps. Major findings of the study are presented in a section on problems of eligibility, benefits, and reimbursement. Findings indicate that due to the…

A study was conducted to assess the current attitudes and beliefs of advisors to Future Homemakers of America/Home Economics Related Occupations (FHA/HERO) in Michigan and to identify a future direction for the organization. A 51-item survey was developed and mailed to 134 past and present FHA/HERO advisors in the state. The questionnaire…

Extension education evaluators are concerned about accounting for lack of control over and the value of describing environmental influences when assessing impact. Evaluability assessment (EA) identifies relationships between and describes external influences on program events. It provides information regarding clarity about goals and objectives…

An informational and attitudinal survey of delinquent boys revealed a serious lack of basic information regarding commonly used drugs, the body's reaction to drugs, the functioning of the body, as well as fairly strong pro-drug attitudes. The school was viewed as the best place to focus on these problems. (Author/PC)

This handbook, one of five local handbooks developed to support specialized implementation of the National Career Development Guidelines, presents guidelines for developing comprehensive programs for adults who are served by community and business organizations. Part I describes the need for guidelines and standards in career development, defines…

This monograph describes a series of collaborative workshops and how they were developed by the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (ACES) and the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) to enhance the school counseling profession, especially in the areas of recruitment and curricula. It begins with a brief introduction and…

An approach to enhancing program quality in educational institutions through program mapping is presented in this report. First, the objective of program mapping is specified as a means to evaluate and clarify the learning outcomes of a college's educational programs; and its use as a graphic representation of the interdependent relationships…

Effective strategic planning has clearly become a skill that is essential to the survival of managers in public and private sector agencies alike. While sometimes thought of as being an overly quantitative and excessively time-consuming activity, strategic planning does not need to be characterized in these terms. In its simplest and most…