Research on staff development in rural and non-rural settings provides guidelines for effective practice. Research on rural staff development, however, must be increased and become more systematic and focused. (JD)

The author discusses his success at obtaining funds to improve his vocational agriculture program in a small school district. He covers such topics as (1) local sources of funding, (2) outside sources, (3) proposal writing, and (4) costs and benefits. (CH)

Five articles respond to the Child Centers study in this issue: (1) discusses reasons why child care providers are rated low; (2) suggests heeding constructive recommendations made by the study team; (3) analyzes impact of mediocre care on black children; (4) examines effect of making the study public; and (5) presents study findings that reflect…

Discusses study findings of the "Cost, Quality, and Child Outcomes in Child Care Centers" that support the position that efforts of center directors to provide quality childcare services are often undermined by purchasing practices of parents and public agencies. (DR)

Lists six recommendations made by consultants who evaluated a writing program at Lehigh University. Gives a brief history of the problem that led to each of the recommendations. Offers five tips for others who are thinking of doing a writing program evaluation. (MG)

Reviews the status of academic advising and considers barriers to effective advising. Suggests that strategies for improving advising systems must take into account specific institutional factors that act as barriers to effective advising and must include long-term commitment to enhancement efforts. (LLL)

Highlights major aspects in the planning and redesign of the guidance program in medium-sized community consisting of 2 high schools, 4 middle schools, and 16 elementary schools. Concludes that comprehensive school counseling programs benefit students; and the collaborative efforts of schools, community, and university personnel improve the…

Examines the use of Quality Function Deployment (QFD) methods for the design, development, and delivery of courses and programs through distance education. Topics discussed include problems in implementing QFD; implementation of QFD in training design; and QFD's contribution to service quality improvement in distance education. (Contains 28…

The various arts and sciences that comprise the field of program evaluation are discussed. It is argued that emphasis on rigor and expressive content has left other aspects of evaluation unexplored. Educational evaluators need to consider what programs mean and how they contribute to understanding. (SLD)

Describes process followed by counseling staff as it began to transform guidance and counseling program at one high school from traditional therapeutic model to service-based program for all students. Model presented benefits both students and counselors: students are served by variety of counselors and counselors use their unique skills and…

Secondary vocational teachers in Indiana (n=186) indicated they were motivated to improve programs by concern for students, professional growth, and desire to keep current. They believed that program improvement enhances professional development, but lacked time to plan for improvement and were skeptical about administrators' ability to reduce…

Discusses the need to keep union lists of serials holdings updated and describes efforts by the University of Notre Dame library to update holdings on the Indiana Union List so that fill rates for interlibrary loan requests are improved. Results are reported that indicate an improvement in fill rates. (LRW)

Presents four ways to improve broadcasts of company satellite conferences, including creative site selection (using facilities at educational institutions rather than hotel rooms); creative programming (using graphics and other interruptions to break up lectures or speeches); creative crew selection; and creative downlink site activities (to…

Attempts to locate the changes and challenges to the traditional understanding of what journalism is, to describe ways of dealing with them up to this point, and to formulate a number of arenas to explore initiatives to educate the new journalists of today and tomorrow. Notes that the argument is based on recent developments in journalism…

An expert panel and consensus workshops identified eight general hallmarks and 23 related indicators of person-centered approaches in planning and providing services and supports to individuals with mental retardation. The applicability of person-centered features and indicators to improving services and supports is discussed. (Contains…