A recent study of school improvement planning teams in central New York State attempted to capture practicing team members' perspectives and identify and elaborate factors helping or hindering team development or effectiveness. Skill development, adequate time, and strong administrative support are critical to successful team development. (20…

Concerned about discrepancies in amount and kind of homework assigned, a Tennessee school district developed some guidelines governing number of homework nights, assignment length, and grading practices. Because it is virtually impossible to require every teacher to carry out identical homework practices, school policies should remain general and…

A survey of 22 agency directors and 219 volunteer board members showed that 40% of members received 1-5 hours of training in the last 6 months, 47% none. Training needs included board roles and responsibilities, strategic planning, understanding the agency, and fundraising. Preferred methods were facilitated workshop/retreat or board-led training…

Describes a Prescriptive Discipline Plan developed by teachers at a Florida middle school. The plan featured three offense categories: minor infractions handled by teachers, intermediate offenses (cheating, disrespect, and insubordination) handled by administrators, and serious offenses (fighting, assault, sexual misconduct) invoking automatic…

Nurse-led research ethics committees are generally more tolerant of diversity in research proposals than are medical committees steeped in empirical traditions. However, national trends in nursing in Britain may influence a preference for multidisciplinary over nurse-led committees. (SK)

Survey responses from 79 of 92 citizens serving on boards, committees, and commissions for Carson City, Nevada, showed that 80% were interested in receiving training. Topics of interest included identifying and analyzing issues, understanding community resources, parliamentary procedure, group process, and listening skills. (SK)

Discusses how a presidential advisory board can function as a farm system for prospective college trustees. Describes how an advisory board created at Roanoke College in Virginia had the added benefit of providing a pool of younger candidates with specialized expertise from which to recruit trustees. (EV)

The Citizens Changing Communities program trained advisory boards in time and meeting management, conflict management, problem solving, goal setting, action planning, and decision making. Although evaluations revealed high interest in program content and delivery methods, actual participation did not match responses. A holistic approach focused on…

This article discusses the scope of activities of the Network Policy Council (NPC), which has been designed to provide a more direct channel of communications within EDUCAUSE and to provide policy formulation more visibility. The NPC is an advisory council to EDUCAUSE whose members are selected from those who have interest in this area and are…

Purpose: To discuss the issues and challenges of digital preservation facing institutional repositories and to illustrate the Joint Information Systems Committee's (JISC) view on institutional repositories and its key initiatives in helping UK institutions address these issues. Design/methodology/approach: A combination of published work and JISC…

Purpose: The paper seeks to record the work of the committee and its interaction with the much better known Electronic Libraries (eLib) Programme. It also examines the principles that underlay the development of content acquisition and supporting infrastructure in UK university libraries in the 1990s. Design/methodology/approach: A historical…

Advisory committees can be valuable to any part of the IT organization. The insights one can derive from such groups about perceptions of service levels and beliefs (or myths) about technology, as well as the interchange of communication between technical staff and users, can be helpful. But to derive the maximum value from advisory committees,…

This literature review took place during 2004, and shows that the braille debate over Grade 1 and Grade 2 has been ongoing for more than 70 years. Given the span of time and a remit that covered the English-speaking world, a chronological approach was taken, focusing on the two main strands of policy and empirical research, from the early 20th…

On September 19, 2005, U.S. Department of Education Secretary Margaret Spellings announced the formation of a Commission on the Future of Higher Education. Over the next two years, the Commission's activities were comprehensively reported and widely debated in the media, and vigorous discussions of the Commission continue. The Commission's Report…

This edition of "Bright Futures" highlights 12 states (Alabama, Colorado, Nevada, Iowa, Maryland, Ohio, West Virginia, Connecticut, Guam, Maine, Pennsylvania and Kansas) that have received grants to support the development of an Early Childhood Advisory Council. Other features of this edition include announcements of state early…