The already limited vocational prospects of low-income African Americans in New Orleans were further devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill added to the devastation, highlighting the continued vulnerability of New Orleanians seeking employment. As a result, opportunities persist for vocational practitioners…

Biopsychosocial consequences of catastrophic events create an ongoing need for research that examines the effects of mass traumas, developing psychosocial interventions, and advocacy to address the needs of affected individuals, systems, and communities. Because it is neither possible nor necessarily desirable to intervene with all touched by…

To solve two enduring problems in education--unacceptably large variation in learning opportunities for students across classrooms and little continuing improvement in the quality of instruction--the authors propose a system that centers on the creation of shared instructional products that guide classroom teaching. By examining systems outside…

Historically, afterschool programs have functioned independently with little coordination among provider organizations or agencies, and public and private funders operating in isolation. Research conducted by the National League of Cities for The Wallace Foundation profiled 27 cities that were known to be taking steps to improve coordination among…

This paper seeks to (1) provide an overview, from a macroanalytical perspective, of the characteristics of unequal educational opportunities within an international perspective, (2) set out problems related to social selectivity, in particular within the vocational educational system in Germany and (3) describe examples of the interaction between…

An important goal for all students is the ability to function independently throughout the school day--moving from one location to the next, organizing required materials, completing necessary tasks, and applying skills learned in one setting to other settings when appropriate. Although this goal is a priority for all students, it is even more…

This article discusses the community collaboration and systems advocacy domains of the ACA (American Counseling Association) Advocacy Competencies (J. A. Lewis, M. S. Arnold, R. House, & R. L. Toporek, 2002). A case illustration is presented, and the 8 Advocacy Competencies within each domain are applied to the case study.

This review highlights the literature on the function and adjustment process of family members of persons with adult-onset vision loss. The majority of the literature has focused on the unique role that the family plays in providing both instrumental and emotional support to adults with low vision. In contrast, the impact of low vision on the…

Worldwide, there is an emerging interest in sustainability and sustainability education. A popular and promising approach is the use of systems thinking. However, the systems approach to sustainability has neither been clearly defined nor has its practical application followed any systematic rigor, resulting in confounded and underspecified…

In an era of global competition and a technology-based economy, it is increasingly important that college students graduate with a solid foundation of knowledge and understanding of science and mathematics. They must be able to use their scientific knowledge on their jobs and in their role as citizens of a society where complex policy and resource…

The central argument of the article is that while the building, the collection and the staff were inseparably linked, in a digital environment these facets of the library are diverging. This divergence clouds the process of envisioning a future for the library, but, if properly defined, it is a source of clarity, which sheds light on strategic…

Participation in outdoor education is underpinned by a learner's ability to acquire skills in activities such as canoeing, bushwalking and skiing and consequently the outdoor leader is often required to facilitate skill acquisition and motor learning. As such, outdoor leaders might benefit from an appropriate and tested model on how the learner…

During President Barack Obama's first two years in office, the administration's signature education initiative has been the Race to the Top (RTT) fund, a small part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 that was passed to stimulate the nation's ailing economy. While celebrations and criticisms of RTT abound, serious attempts to…

Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), in which educators work collaboratively to improve learning for students, need effective strategies to sustain them. PLCs promote continuous improvement in student learning and build academic success with increased teacher expertise. Grounded in organizational systems theory, participative leadership…

Performance-based accountability systems (PBASs), which link incentives to measured performance as a means of improving services to the public, have gained popularity. While PBASs can vary widely across sectors, they share three main components: goals, incentives, and measures. Research suggests that PBASs influence provider behaviors, but little…