Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) closed three middle schools and transitioned eight elementary schools to PK-8 schools in 2011. The Office of Program Evaluation (OPE) at the University of South Carolina collaborated with CMS on a three-year evaluation of the transition. The evaluation focused on the perceptions and impacts of the PK-8 structure…

This paper describes an interesting sound phenomenon from a modern copy of the Chinese ancient variable bell which can emit distinctly different sounds at different temperatures. By means of audition--spectrum analyser software--and PC, the sound signals of the variable bell are collected and the fundamental spectra are shown on the PC. The…

The 2010 elections marked the 112th time in U.S. history that Americans went to the polls to elect representation at all levels of government. In all, they elected 435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, 37 members of the U.S. Senate, 37 governors and more than 6,100 state legislators. Anxious and frustrated voters made their voices…

While some experts say that technically the recession is over, states are still wrestling with several years of budget reductions, little --if any--revenue growth, and the increasing costs of providing services. Legislatures are continuing to shore up budgets with federal recovery funds and, in some cases, they shifted reserves from dedicated…

While there are areas of disagreement in the responses to this author's earlier article [Klees, "Aid, Development, and Education," "Current Issues in Comparative Education," v13(1) 7-28 2010], he finds that the disagreements are much less important than the commonalities. He tries to detail both in this reply, but he focuses on how he and his…

When teaching the effect of temperature on biochemical reactions, the problem is usually oversimplified by confining the thermal effect to the catalytic constant, which is identified with the rate constant of the elementary limiting step. Therefore, only positive values for activation energies and values greater than 1 for temperature coefficients…

Glaciers serve as early indicators of climate change. Over the last 35 years, our research team has recovered ice-core records of climatic and environmental variations from the polar regions and from low-latitude high-elevation ice fields from 16 countries. The ongoing widespread melting of high-elevation glaciers and ice caps, particularly in low…

The article explores whether, and to what extent, several trends that have taken place in most higher education systems in the last few decades--such as massification, privatization, increased competition for students and for research funds--stimulate more diversity between institutions. This question is widely debated, both empirically and…

Evidence is presented of the extent to which libraries from around the world are experiencing financial hardship as a result of the world-wide economic downturn. Comparative analyses are provides on the grounds of country, sector and size of institution. The article concentrates on the situation of UK and US university libraries and is based on…

There are two ways one might protect communities from natural disasters. One is to minimize the damage from disasters, and the other is to prevent the disasters in the first place. However, preventing disasters is another matter, and in trying to do so, we have to be aware of unintended consequences of our efforts. To address the issues associated…

The Student Operational Aggie Doppler Radar Project (SOAP) involved 95 undergraduates in a research and education program to better understand the climatology of storms in southeast Texas from 2006-2010. This paper describes the structure, components, and implementation of the 1-credit-hour research course, comparing first-year participants'…

Rates of student homelessness have increased dramatically throughout the United States in recent years, yet there has been a dearth of scholarly analysis devoted to key organizations' engagement of the issue. Given that the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act has taken on a central, but underexamined role in shaping this engagement,…

The unauthorized duplication of books through photocopies and Internet downloads, especially in the case of academic books, is currently one of the most challenging problems facing the publishing industry. Photocopying has become widespread with these texts, apparently without major ethical concerns on the part of students. The purpose of this…

The purpose of this study is to examine Social Studies textbooks in terms of national and global citizenship. The research was carried out using qualitative research methodologies. Interpretive thematic analysis was used to examine the social studies textbooks from 4th grade through 8th grade. The analyses showed that the Social Studies textbooks…

Building relationships and community collaborations--especially on an institutional level--is a slow and long-term process. These types of innovative, experimental, and long-term collaborations with community organizations and groups often lead art institutions to reflect on the value and place of their institutional structures when engaging in…