In this paper, we address the often contentious debate over state and local recycling policy by carefully estimating the social net benefit of curbside recycling. Benefits are estimated using household survey data from over 4,000 households across 40 western U.S. cities. We calibrate household willingness to pay for hypothetical bias using an…

When students put down their pencils at the end of Connecticut's testing each year, another intensive process begins. Hundreds of trained evaluators work day and night for about a month to score the written responses. Although expensive, the use of open-ended questions drives the kind of instruction that state leaders say they want in their…

In December 1998, the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE) revised the educational standards for Occupational Therapy Assistant (OTA) programs to include non-traditional or community-based practice. This freedom to explore new fieldwork opportunities prompted OTA programs to examine the needs of their surrounding…

Matched samples of 174 pairs of persons with mental retardation who live in either community settings or congregate care settings were compared on both cost and outcome dimensions. It was learned that costs were significantly lower in community programs. Greater levels of service and integration were evident in the community programs, but…

Unexpected interruptions introduced during the execution phase of simple Tower of London problems incurred a time cost when the interrupted goal was retrieved, and this cost was exacerbated the longer the goal was suspended. Furthermore, time taken to retrieve goals was greater following a more complex interruption, indicating the processing…

School administrators face one of the most daunting challenges in history--providing quality learning environments during a tremendous financial crisis. The crisis may seem overwhelming, but web-native operations management technology offered by SchoolDude.com can help them overcome these challenges. The Internet makes technology more affordable…

Sadly, technical support doesn't come cheap. One money-saving strategy that's gained popularity among school technicians is equipment and software standardization. When it works, standardization can be very effective. However, standardization has its drawbacks. This article discusses the advantages and disadvantages of standardization.

A qualitative study was conducted to explore the motivations of individuals, who advocate politically for members of social outgroups. Long interviews with social activists focussed on self-ascribed motivations for activism, relationship with the outgroup, and the costs and benefits associated with being an outgroup activist. A thematic analysis…

The present essay outlines how mixed methods research can be used to enhance the interpretation of significant findings. First, we define what we mean by significance in educational evaluation research. With regard to quantitative-based research, we define the four types of significance: statistical significance, practical significance, clinical…

Since the 80s, higher education in Spain has undergone important modifications such as greater autonomy, expansion in the number of students and the introduction of more flexible programmes. In this context, guidance services have proliferated in an unstructured way. This paper presents a description of guidance services in Spanish universities…

Incidental counseling occurs when school staff members respond to students in ways strikingly similar to counseling. Incidental counseling is offered as a simple and effective way for school counselors to engage in systemic change. Two case examples from real school settings form the context for a discussion of how school counselors can begin to…

Time and resources are becoming increasingly scarce in most higher education institutions today. As a result, colleges and universities are looking to streamline and simplify many costly, labor-intensive administrative processes. In this article, Tracy Williams examines how Web-based time-entry systems can help institutions save valuable time and…

Every dollar counts in today's school libraries, where a resource is evaluated not just by the cost, but also by how many students will utilize it. A recent survey shows that many school librarians rely on their state to help provide (and pay for) databases that their students can access from the school media center or at their public library.…

In "Holding Accountability to Account: How Scholarship and Experience in Other Fields Inform Exploration of Performance Incentives in Education"--a paper presented at the National Center on Performance Incentives research to policy conference in February--Richard Rothstein, a research associate at the Economic Policy Institute, argues educational…

This review paper, prepared for the forthcoming Russell Sage volume Changing Poverty, considers the ability of different education policies to improve the learning outcomes of low-income children in America. Disagreements on this question stem in part from different beliefs about the problems with our nation's public schools. In our view there…