The recent wrap-up of an intensive, two-year examination of the federal Reading First initiative is not expected to halt debate over the program. Given the broad agreement in seven federal reports that serious problems occurred in the oversight of the program's implementation, the findings have sparked interest on Capitol Hill, as lawmakers…

Prisons are increasingly being filled with inmates who suffer from mental illness. This paper examines the prevalence of mental illness in American jails and prisons, the duty government and society has to provide appropriate mental health treatment, and the implications for inmate safety, costs, recidivism, and community reintegration if…

Horizontal evaluation combines self-assessment and external evaluation by peers. Papa Andina, a regional network that works to reduce rural poverty in the Andean region by fostering innovation in potato production and marketing, has used horizontal evaluations to improve the work of local project teams and to share knowledge within the network. In…

Online systems have come to be heavily used in education, particularly for online learning and collecting information not otherwise readily available. Most e-learning systems, including interactive learning systems, have been designed to "push" course materials to students but rarely to "collect" or "pull" ideas from them. The interactive…

Building Educated Leaders for Life (BELL) is a national not-for-profit organization whose mission is to increase the educational achievements, self-esteem, and life opportunities of elementary school children living in low-income urban communities. BELL has been engaged in formal evaluation, internally and externally, for more than five years and…

This report presents a comprehensive plan to improve teaching and learning in New York State's public and private schools. After surveying school improvement efforts since 1977, characteristics of New York education, and the state Board of Regents' recent goals review, the report states the regents' goals underlying this action plan. These…

Traditional and nontraditional education in Taiwan are considered, based on interviews with educators and scholars in Taiwan, observations, and research materials. To provide a picture of the evolution of academe in the Chinese-Taiwan setting, attention is directed to philosophy, history, academic ethics and excellence, methodology, and policy…

This report discusses child-care needs and consumer education for low-income families, the types and value of information they receive when participating in the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills (JOBS) program, the different approaches to child-care consumer education, case studies on the child-care practices that are detrimental as well as those…

This document consists of four consecutive annual program evaluation reports covering the years 1991-92, 1992-93, 1993-94, 1994-95, respectively. These reports detail the results of the annual product evaluation of the federally funded Chapter 1 prekindergarten program of the Saginaw, Michigan School District. The purpose of the prekindergarten…

This paper discusses how the management of conflict in an international teaching assistant (ITA) training program can benefit all stakeholders and maintain good will between departments and the ITA program by encompassing strategies for mutual gain. It focuses on how the ITA training program at New Mexico State University has resolved many of the…

This report presents a plan of the National Association of State Directors of Special Education's Project FORUM to establish and implement the on-going process of identifying national program information needed for improving the management, administration, delivery, and effectiveness of programs and services under the Individuals with Disabilities…

This guidebook has been developed to provide Nebraska communities with a practical process to reach a shared vision of library and information service and to put that vision into action in practical steps. The manual is part of the state's Continuous Library Improvement Program (CLIP), a planning process that includes goals and an action agenda.…

This hearing transcript presents testimony on National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) rules related to payments to student athletes. Testimony was heard from individuals and groups concerned with the influence of money on college athletics, unethical and illegal payments to college athletes, the exploitation of college athletes by colleges…

These hearing transcripts present testimony on the high risks and emerging fraud in several areas of the federal government, including the Student Loan Program of the Education Department (ED), the Multifamily Housing Program of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax return filing. Testimony…

The use of the Child Care Development Block Grant (CCDBG) in combination with other funding has been an important factor in the development of initiatives to expand and improve child care services in rural areas. Based on their personal knowledge, a technical advisory group and experts recommended states with innovative, unique, and successful…