The world has a mixed record towards achieving EFA [Education for All] and the MDGs [Millennium Development Goals] in relation to the targets on gender equity in basic education. For researchers and practitioners, this raises the question of which factors influence the processes leading to the improvement of access and quality of girls' education…

Recognizing that a necessary and significant role change is underway in faculty development, this book calls for centers to merge their traditional responsibilities and services with a leadership role as organizational developers. Failing to define and outline the dimensions and expertise of this new role puts centers at risk of not only…

This comprehensive text helps prepare pre-service and in-service teachers to build and sustain family, school, and community partnerships that are vital to student success. Focusing on grades preK-8, and with a particular emphasis on diverse families and learners, this book helps teachers to overcome barriers, create action plans, and sustain…

Portland Community College has a firmly rooted career and technical education (CTE) partnership with its service area high schools. However, the partnership was continuing to operate as it had for many years. Given the rapid pace of change in the region's workforce, Oregon's secondary and postsecondary educational initiatives, and a shared…

In late 1999, philanthropist Susie Buffett wanted to make the smartest possible investment to improve public education in her hometown of Omaha, Nebraska. She and her then-foundation president, Dan Pedersen, spoke with Superintendent John Mackiel regarding how he would choose to use private funds to enhance opportunities for Omaha's 46,000…

The 2010 Professional Development Schools National Conference recognized the professional development school relationship between Towson University with its dual certification major and the Howard County Public School System for its outstanding collaborative accomplishments, naming the Towson-Waterloo-Ilchester-Bellows Spring PDS as a recipient of…

Purpose: This paper aims to describe the activities designed and conducted with primary school, secondary school and university students to study the integration of alternative assessment and self-assessment online tools in mathematics courses using iTest. iTest is an educational software tool born to support the continuous evaluation system…

This article describes the use of assessment in the design and implementation stages of launching online courses and programs. While use of assessment for improving student engagement in both face-to-face and online courses has been commonly used, the authors augmented the strategic planning of programs to include assessment as a tool for…

An e-learning project is a balance of time, cost, and scope measured against learner engagement. With this measure, the learner is part of every stage in the project's development. Assessing decisions with regards to learner impact will contribute to a more engaging and therefore successful project. To illustrate this concept, this paper will…

The decisions rural elementary school principals make related to special education programming at their building sites are influenced by a variety of factors. This study employed a qualitative research methodology to investigate the perspectives of four rural elementary school principals concerning the decision-making processes they use as they…

The purpose of this study was to examine the implementation flow and development of retail bank management simulation based training system which could provide a comprehensive knowledge about the operations and management of banks for the banking students. The prototype of a Retail banking simulation based training system was developed based on…

Evangelical institutions of higher education began introducing programs of social work education after 1960 during a period of academic reform and dramatic social change. Public dialogue increasingly acknowledged impoverishment as a reality in America, and the renewal of social concern among evangelicals stimulated interest in education for the…

The way many secondary schools are structured limits the ability of immigrant English Learners to achieve academically and develop social networks, often resulting in hyper-segregated learning experiences. This book explores the journey of a group of teachers in a secondary school as they work to change the ESL program for immigrants in their…

This paper presents a brief overview of Qatar University's history since it was started in 1973. Its primary focus is on the various small, but important, steps taken by the University to address the needs of quality assurance and enhancement. The Qatar University Reform Plan is described in detail. Its aims are to continually improve the quality…

In this paper we present a history of the idea of Open Educational Resources, overview the current state of the Open Educational Resources movement, report on critical issues facing the field in the immediate future, and present two new projects to watch in 2009.