This study, conducted by the Instructional Technology Department (ITD) at the Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC) in Western Pennsylvania, describes the results of a faculty needs assessment in the area of technology and distance learning. The Faculty Technology Skills Survey was administered to 490 full-time faculty members in order to…

The implementation of Taiwan's nationwide constructivist-approach elementary mathematics curriculum has been ongoing for 5 years. From the perspective of systems thinking, Taiwan elementary educational system's mindset as a whole is troubled, and is unable to coordinate with the surrounding community in order to better educational standards. The…

This paper describes the intentional implementation of a program designed to enhance attitudes of social responsibility in graduate students in clinical psychology. Key factors in developing social responsibility appear to be confrontation with injustice, modeling, and self-efficacy. Teaching goals and methods for facilitating these factors are…

Common reading programs are becoming a ubiquitous component of first-year experience initiatives. Sometimes controversial, these programs are designed to provide students an introduction to the intellectual expectations of college in an often-informal gathering of college faculty and peers. Yet, truly dynamic and successful programs move beyond…

In 1994 and again in 1997, AACC selected groups of institutions, known as Horizons colleges, to work together in collaborative mentoring relationships to build campus-based service-learning programs. While the number of service learning programs has grown significantly, not all of those programs are sustained by colleges for the long term. This…

The 2005 Washington State Legislature authorized, through Substitute House Bill 1345, a two-year pilot project allowing eligible students, who enroll for four or five credits in a term, to receive the State Need Grant (SNG). Several important policy considerations emerged during the pilot project. Board staff explored these issues with financial…

Between 2001 and 2005, the state of Maine shifted the focus of its statewide high school improvement efforts to include an explicit focus on adolescent literacy. One trigger for that change in focus was a 5-school adolescent literacy initiative previously launched in a rural county under the federal Northeast and Islands Regional Educational…

A groundbreaking synthesis of developmental, relationship-based, and skill-based approaches, The SCERTS[TM] Model provides a framework for improving communication and social-emotional abilities in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and their families. Developed by internationally recognized experts, SCERTS[TM] supports developmental…

This guide promotes the use of natural supports to assist individuals with severe disabilities. The first two sections review the development of natural supports in the workplace, including changes in perspectives on the role of persons with disabilities, utilization issues, and the definition of natural supports. A seven-step process reflecting…

Although family child care has the potential to offer young children individual attention and customized, educational programs to help them thrive, the quality of these programs is dependent upon a workforce that is at the bottom of the occupational status and pay hierarchy. This report examines ways to promote high quality in family child care…

This instrument is designed to help school administrators assess the level of implementation of the essential elements of the Instructional Support Teams (IST) process in Pennsylvania. The instrument is a rating sheet, or checklist, on which the presence and absence of components of the IST process are noted. The number of features in place is…

New data compiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation make it clear that the peak hours for violent juvenile crime are 3:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Nearly half of all juvenile crime takes place between 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m., and nearly two-thirds of all violent juvenile crime takes place between 2:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. In addition, in 57% of…

Secondary school administrators must carefully consider the ramifications of a proposed alternative scheduling plan before proceeding with implementation. The first article in this newsletter presents findings from a study that compared data from two groups of schools (one group with a 4 X 4 block plan and the other with a trimester plan) to data…

Two basic approaches to career education (CE) are available to school systems in Arkansas: a "stand-alone" approach and an "integrated" CE program. The stand-alone course, which is called career orientation (CO), is required for all junior high schools. It consists of four major units: self-awareness; career awareness;…

This document presents the 1997 Mississippi summer library program for children. Highlights include: planning a summer library program; promotion and tips on writing publicity releases; radio spots (samples); press releases (samples); a sample letter to parents; a general bibliography; selected promotional resources; supply sources; recipes. Also…