This issue of "Civic Partners" is a call to action on behalf of American's cities. The issue opens with John W. Gardner's discussion of the "responsibles" whose vision and energy sustain communities. He stresses that all of us are "responsibles." Among the many tasks that face those responsible for urban improvement is the teaching of conflict…

This paper describes the activities and thoughts that went into the development and implementation of Brazosport College's institutional effectiveness (IE) model. The Community College Student Experiences Questionnaire (CCSEQ) was used to collect data on student satisfaction, and to provide constructs to use as outcome indicators for evaluating…

The formal and informal pathways taken by Australian women from nonaccredited adult community education (ACE) to accredited programs of vocational education and training (VET) were examined in a national survey. Data were collected from a review of the literature on ACE, and telephone interviews with providers of ACE and VET (from a sample limited…

A major objective of this collection is to involve researchers in a wide range of disciplines who share an interest in the long-term effects of early childhood education on poor children and their families. The book begins with a series of reviews that provide general overviews of research on the long-term effects of early childhood education. The…

Drawing on data collected from students attending Australian rural- and urban-based universities, structural modeling was used to test the validity of a model of student persistence and satisfaction in agricultural courses. The model placed personal and environmental factors as predictors of student persistence and satisfaction and was comprised…

This volume presents 59 chapters on research and development in giftedness and talent from an international perspective. This second edition includes 80 percent new material and incorporates three fundamental changes from the previous edition: perspectives from scholars in related fields, new scholarship emerging in the late 1990s on talent…

This guide is intended to provide guidelines, from a British perspective, for group discussion of issues relevant to developing a school policy to meet the needs of students who are very able. The guide utilizes short case studies and a series of mindmaps to illustrate issues and highlight key planning and decision-making points. The guide begins…

This paper describes a study conducted by Northern Arizona University's Educational Technology faculty regarding training teachers for the integration of technology and the promotion of learner-centered instruction. Participants included traditional pre-service students enrolled in a required "Technology in the Classroom" course and…

A study examined the following questions to ascertain what progress has been made in improving the educational achievement of vocational students through the "High Schools That Work" initiative: (1) What progress has been made in raising the achievement of vocational students to national averages or higher? (2) What things matter in…

This paper discusses the use of telephone surveys as a substitute for, or addition to, the use of door-to-door surveys in assessing adult literacy ability. Part 1 addresses issues of validity in adult literacy assessment, including the concepts of construct or inferential validity and action or use validity. Part 2 is a review of related research…

In all societies, there is a new interest in the education of women, their role in society, and their place in the economy. Western societies have moved away from single-sex education in the past few decades, but recent research and experience has begun to highlight again the value of single-sex colleges and schools. Changes in working patterns…

The Nevada Writing Assessment Program has been developed, implemented, and facilitated by Nevada classroom teachers, who have adapted, designed, and continually revised the scoring criteria; designed the assessment writing prompts; evaluated and chosen anchor papers; led the scoring sessions and read and scored the student papers; and made the…

This guide is a tool to assist educators in the development of high-quality work-based learning sites and other school-employer connections in New Hampshire as part of the state's school-to-work program. The guide provides implementation ideas for seven strategies for work-based learning experiences (industry tours, job shadowing, service…

Noting that the provision of early childhood education (ECE) services to linguistically and culturally diverse groups of children representing a wide range of abilities and income levels requires the scrutiny of current systems and practices, this book proposes a new paradigm of early childhood education, the Early Childhood Inclusion (ECI) Model,…

A conceptual framework for school-based vocational education and training (VET) in Australia is based on a United States model. It implies VET has purposes beyond equipping young people with skills. Global themes in VET development are government use of VET as an economic and social policy tool to ensure skilled workforces; provision of VET…