Examined the effects of Bright Start, an early-education program for providing children in Israel with the cognitive tools for school learning, on first graders' cognitive performance and achievement tests in math and reading comprehension. Found improvements in the test group's performance over all measures. (JPB)

Facing an ever-increasing student retention rate, staff at a Washington elementary school implemented a multiage program. Teachers received considerable training but experienced burnout the first year. Four years later, retention is down, test scores and attendance are up, discipline referrals have decreased, teacher turnover is low, and parents…

For many ethnically diverse students with learning disabilities, participation in postsecondary education is necessary. However, to achieve this goal, a comprehensive transition planning is essential. As a consequence, postsecondary personnel must collaborate with others to ensure nondiscriminatory but sensible treatment of ethnically diverse…

In this article, we discuss the importance, specifically for developmental educators, of understanding diverse students' use and perceptions of learning centers. Among the results of a survey of students' perceptions of the mathematics program in the General College, University of Minnesota, we found statistically significant differences in how…

Well-designed, active group games are more than just fun. They can help young children develop essential life skills that impact their development and contribute to school readiness. This article discusses how playing developmentally appropriate games allows children to build listening skills as well as social and cooperative skills, gain enough…

In the paper, I review evidence on the number of students who enter community colleges with weak academic skills and on the incidence of developmental education. I then report on what happens to developmental students and review the research on the effectiveness of programs at community colleges designed to strengthen weak academic skills. I…

Over the past several decades, student transitions have become a primary focus for many higher education staff and faculty. Not surprisingly, these educators have concerned themselves primarily with the transition into college, because high first-year attrition numbers reflect how challenging this transition is for many new students. Attention has…

While the common elements of collegiate transition have been defined and explored, there are layers of complexity in students' characteristics and educational pathways that make this transition experience different for every student. This exploration centers on students as they experience the higher education continuum, beginning before the first…

Single-honours psychology students at an English university were asked about their expectations and experiences at the start and the end of their first year. Students without a pre-university (A-level) qualification in psychology (n = 37: 22%) felt less well-prepared for studying psychology than students with an A-level qualification (n = 132:…

In this article, the author observes how policymakers have approached P-16 reform in a less-constructive fashion--one given to faddism and quick fixes. The author suggests that the problem with P-16 reforms does not lie with how policymakers and advocates have found sensible ways to make the policy work, but rather with the way reformers,…

"As educators, we have to make the commitment to a very simple proposition: if we admit students to college, we should do everything possible to make sure they succeed. These remarks are not an indictment but a rallying call. We can do much better." With these words, Dr. Raymund Paredes, Texas commissioner of higher education, opened the…

In today's knowledge driven economy a college degree is critical to the success of a competitive workforce. Yet in 2008, only 19 percent of Latinos, 29 percent of blacks, and 39 percent of whites 25 and over had earned an associate degree or higher. At a time when all students will have to accelerate success to meet national degree completion…

In 2005-06 almost half of the pupils in California's public schools were Latinos, but Latinos only received about 15 percent of the BA degrees awarded by public and private colleges in the state. Texas has a comparable Latino population, but does significantly better than California in getting Latino students through college. The implication of…

This paper presents the annual report of Philadelphia Youth Network (PYN) for 2009-2010. This annual report documents the journeys of several participants in their programs who have gone on successfully to college and careers, and demonstrates the potential of young Philadelphians to begin to reach their goals. In telling these stories, they build…

Education reform has been in progress for at least two decades, yet our nation's postsecondary institutions continue to see increasing numbers of underprepared students. Despite numerous and varied attempts at nationwide reform at the secondary education level, the number of students requiring remedial education courses in postsecondary education…