Discusses the financial and operational difficulties inherent in community college facilities management. It explains why the primary source of plant operation cost and waste starts with satisfying the scheduling and changing educational needs of its students. Problems in planning and executing major maintenance activities are also addressed. (GR)

A study examined 177 Kentucky secondary agriculture teachers' attitudes toward block scheduling based on teaching experience. Results indicate that less experienced teachers viewed block scheduling more favorably than experienced teachers, and all respondents agreed that block scheduling had a positive impact on teaching strategies and classroom…

Addresses the possible impact of block scheduling on student performance on the advanced placement (AP) examination. Discusses team-teaching AP history and English courses for both junior and senior levels using alternative schedules (alternating weeks for AP English and history throughout the school year). Provides two AP syllabi for history and…

Describes several reasons, based largely on dissatisfaction with New York City bureaucracy, why principal of International High School in Queens decided to accept invitation to become a charter school: Student selection challenges; need for school-based staffing; scheduling, financial, and purchasing rigidities; and state assessment requirements.…

Presents a strategy for using output measures to make a case for a flexible school media center schedule. Highlights include gathering the data; doing the calculations; and avoiding misinterpretation of the figures. A sidebar describes a step-by-step strategy for presenting a convincing case. Two sample charts are included. (AEF)

Focuses on traditional music ensembles (orchestra, bands, and choir) discussing such issues as the affects of block scheduling and how to deal with scheduling issues, the effects of funding on large ensemble programs, nontraditional ensembles in music programs, and trying to teach the National Standards for Music Education within a large ensemble.…

This study examined 28 preservice teachers' interpretations of a 9-hour, field-based reading block. Qualitative analyses of varied data sources, including surveys, journals, and interviews, revealed that during the block experience the students (a) became more prepared and confident to teach children who experience reading difficulties, (b)…

Time management is a skill. Like any new skill, it takes time and commitment to develop. A frequent complaint of center directors is not having enough time. Most work extremely long hours and still feel they are not getting enough done. This article presents ideas on how to manage time and work smarter, not harder. These ideas are the following:…

Virtual courses and schools--in which the student and the teacher are in different locations--have become commonplace at the university and high school level. Public, full-time virtual schooling for younger students, however, is still on the frontier of education. About a dozen states now offer full-time virtual schools among their public school…

The article describes a partnership between two of the libraries at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) through which two staff in one library worked part-time at the other during the summer of 2006 in order to maximize staffing efficiency among the units, as well as to realize professional development-related goals for the staff…

The issue of whether to separate English language development (ELD) into a separate instructional block or whether to integrate it with reading/language arts instruction is an unanswered question with theoretical and practical implications. We addressed this question by observing instruction across the year in 85 kindergarten classrooms that…

This digest provides useful information on starting an elementary school foreign language (FLES) program. Individual sections address the following: (1) cautions in planning a FLES program; (2) initiating the planning process; (3) designing the program, with special attention given to scheduling and language choice; (4) programs that lead to high…

Publications in the fields of educational science, organization theory, and project management were analyzed to identify the possibilities that modularization offers to institutions of higher professional education and to obtain background information for use in developing a method for modularization in higher professional education. It was…

A current educational trend involves looking for ways to make the most efficient use of the time students spend in school. As schools embrace curricular reform, those on the front lines are reevaluating traditional beliefs about how schools are structured. This book contains a collection of articles that present information necessary to making a…

Time management is critical for effective leadership and productivity among community college chairs and deans. An organization that is more time conscious tends to be more productive and less stressful. Similarly, an organization's time management culture can provide ideas for improving productivity and the work environment. One model of time…