Discusses the steps to ensure that assessment leads to genuine improvement: (1) agreeing on goals based on recognized standards; (2) establishing yearly objectives that help meet those goals; (3) developing a formal method for reporting the attainment of those objectives; and (4) using the assessment of the program as a part of the media…

Abstinence-only programs for preventing teen pregnancy are the only options in some states but are the programs of choice in others. Effectiveness data, however, are lacking. The SOS Adolescent Family Life Program (SOS), an abstinence-only teen pregnancy prevention program, was implemented in south central Louisiana. Peer mentoring with an…

This report is based on a paper that was presented at the 2004 Biregional Randolph-Sheppard Training Conference in Philadelphia. A review of various state licensing agency (SLA) policy manuals by the author revealed no specific SLA policies on reciprocity or guidelines on setting up and managing facilities out of state or on the recognition of…

The UMass Lilly Teaching Fellows early career faculty development program was rated a success at its 10-year mark by fellows who were asked in a survey to assess the program and its effects on their careers. In order not only to continue the program's success but improve upon it, the UMass Center for Teaching, guided by the survey, significantly…

Examples are provided about ways to change professional and ethical practices to promote the creation of a culture that facilitates and equitably recognizes collaboratively produced scholarship. (Contains 1 table.)

Human service fields, and more specifically public health, are increasingly requiring evaluations to prove the worth of funded programs. Many public health practitioners, however, lack the required background and skills to conduct useful, appropriate evaluations. In the late 1990s, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) created the…

Back in 2000, Charles Best was teaching at Wings Academy, an alternative high school in the Bronx, when he got the idea for a Web site where teachers could solicit donations for class projects. With help from his students, DonorsChoose.org soon was born. Last year, the site won Amazon.com's Nonprofit Innovation Award. So far, DonorsChoose has…

This applied dissertation described the evaluation of a program designed to provide students with the necessary academic and social skills needed to matriculate and graduate from the university. The problem was that there was no evidence of a formalized program evaluation to determine if the Academic Empowerment Center (AEC) was effective in…

This study analyzed three different middle school mathematics formative assessment programs, examining how features of each program were associated with the information they provided to teachers and the manner in which teachers used the information. The research team found considerable variation in the information teachers obtained from each…

Everyone--board members, parents, and staff--loves small schools, bur it's no secret that small schools cost more to operate, particularly if administrative and teaching staff cannot be assigned efficiently. If there is a silver lining in this dark contextual cloud, it's that political support for consolidating schools has rarely been better. The…

Feeling that social studies has been sidelined by a test-driven focus on math and English/language arts, subject-matter specialists from more than a dozen states met last week with representatives of content-area groups to brainstorm ways to improve academic standards in that subject. The two-day gathering in Charlotte, N.C., is the third convened…

The World Bank is clearly one of the most influential global intergovernmental operators for international development assistance. In recent decades, the Bank and other agencies have invested immense technical and financial resources in a troubled and unprecedented mission of revitalizing and restructuring the development of education in Africa. A…

The purpose of this case study is as follows: (1) to identify change within a single school, (2) to record and to categorize this change, and (3) to analyze this change within the targeted school, over a year, after implementation of a non-collaborative SIP through the perceptions of the instructional staff. This study explained how the Louisiana…

Schools and districts are inundated with data from a variety of sources. As a result, using data to guide instructional planning can be daunting for teachers and schools. While schools and districts are dealing with shrinking budgets and growing demands for high student achievement, an investment in school-based coaching can provide exponential…

Every district wants its schools to shine, and more are recognizing that, in order to raise performance, they need well-trained principals who can shake up the status quo and create an environment where all students flourish. Indeed, in a six-year study analyzing data from 180 schools in nine states, researchers from the Universities of Minnesota…