This document summarizes comments from 539 individuals on a literacy framework for Alberta, provided during the Alberta Literacy Forum held in Edmonton from April 14 to 16, 2008. The Forum was Alberta's contribution to the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC) Pan-Canadian Interactive Literacy Forum, which involved all of Canada's…

Teacher transfers from one worksite to another have a significant impact upon the schools they leave. Researchers and school leaders have proposed a number of solutions to attempt to address teacher transfers, but the rate of teacher transfers remains high. Thus, a better understanding of the motivational factors related to teachers' decisions to…

Most Americans believe public education should be available to all citizens; yet, are schools really accessible to everyone? The author argues that they are not. She thinks they are becoming increasingly inaccessible as evidenced by the growing number of students leaving public schools for private institutions, home school, GED and Adult Basic…

Institutions that have organized and centralized their data enjoy an obvious advantage in grappling with strategic planning and other issues. As the drumbeat for accountability, planning, and demonstrating effectiveness to internal and external stakeholders intensifies, the stature and importance of institutional research offices on most campuses…

Teacher candidates can benefit from teacher preparation programs that couple learned classroom experiences with the use of hypermedia, yet challenges can arise when such technologies are integrated into university classrooms. Hypermedia in the context of teacher candidate learning can aid educators in meeting the needs of this population. This…

Persons who are elderly, visually impaired, and primary caregivers for ailing or disabled spouses or significant others are a unique population that has not been studied previously. By definition, "informal caregivers" are family members or friends who provide unpaid day-to-day assistance with activities of daily living and are familiar with the…

Adult students, whether new or returning to higher education, experience a unique set of transition challenges. This chapter highlights the barriers facing adult students and offers ways to overcome them. For many adult students, returning to college and fulfilling their goals is much like building a house of cards. In order to be successful, each…

Structural equation modelling was used to test a model integrating achievement goal orientation, learning style, self-efficacy and metacognition into a single framework that explained and predicted variation in performance. Self-efficacy was the strongest predictor of performance. Metacognition was a weak predictor of performance. Deep processing…

Students attending a midwestern university (N = 520) were surveyed about their attitudes toward the work world, their futures, and adulthood. Differences between underclassmen and upperclassmen in plans following graduation and perceived level of preparation may reflect each group's closeness to graduation. Differences were found between male and…

Listening comprehension has had a long and ever-evolving history. Within the last 100 years, we have seen it progress from analog phonograph recordings, through the audiotape era, and into the digital realm. Questions arise as to how this evolution has proceeded, what pitfalls and accomplishments we have experienced, and where we might envision…

The study described in this article was conducted to elicit beginning teachers' reflections on successes and struggles in practice. An understanding of these issues can be used to determine how teacher education and district induction programs might create additional support systems during the transition from preservice to experienced teacher.…

This article describes the process of developing an indicator system that goes beyond a single indicator of school progress or performance. The system relies on a set of school indicators that uses data that public schools routinely report to state agencies for compliance purposes. The framework for the indicator system is based on the idea of…

By following the emerging early education policies in state governments across the United States, as well as tracking the direction of ECE professional organizations, one gets the impression that quality improvement is assured by an ever-expanding set of requirements and expectations placed on teachers. However, most of the folks who are…

The State Higher Education Finance (SHEF) report is produced annually by the State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO) to broaden understanding of the context and consequences of multiple decisions made every year in each of these areas. No single report can provide definitive answers to such broad and fundamental questions of public…

The Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) supports projects that are designed to reform teacher and principal compensation. Initially, the Department of Education (the Department) made two rounds of awards, in 2006 and 2007, to a total of 34 grantees. The specific goals of TIF were to reward teachers and principals for improving student achievement,…