Forty trainees, consultants, and resource persons attended the 3-day Institute held in Topeka, Kansas. Among the Institute's objectives were to: provide a basic orientation to the roles and functions of the aging services, programs, and the field of gerontology; examine aging services and benefits, both legislative and programmatic relating to…

Describes responses of 35 state gifted education consultants and 76 teachers of gifted students in rural areas to survey of rural gifted programming. Finds many needs for gifted programming involving cooperative efforts, adequate funding, use of community resources, more consistent/appropriate identification methods, teacher influence, and role…

To indicate areas for training program improvement, 476 prospective teachers responded to questions developed around educator-identified societal and educational trends to obtain self-analysis of preparation to meet future demands of the teaching role. Less than half felt adequately prepared; most placed heavy emphasis on the practicum component…

The General Accounting Office assessed the extent to which states were coordinating their Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) services with their one-stop centers. Data were gathered through the following activities: (1) an autumn 2001 survey of workforce development agency officials in all 50 states and a similar survey conducted in…

The Worker Profiling and Reemployment Services (WPRS) was a program established in states by regulation of the federal government to profile Unemployment Insurance (UI) recipients who were most likely to exceed their time limits for UI and to give those recipients training in job search methods. The WPRS Policy Workgroup was established in January…

A study investigated linkages between adult community education (ACE) and mainstream vocational education and training (VET) in Australia, which enable people to move between the two sectors in their pursuit of vocational learning, and the ways in which linkages might be improved or new ones developed. The data from the study were derived from 69…

This curriculum framework is a guide for local education communities as they restructure their schools and improve foreign language planning. Grounded in national and state reform efforts, this guide for teachers to help students achieve the Sunshine State Standards, presents broad, overarching ideas for the development of curriculum and…

Designed for youth programs, funders, policymakers, and researchers, this workbook is a tool and a resource on effective practices for youth employment and development. It is a product of the Promising and Effective Practices Network (PEPNet), which offers a knowledge base of effective strategies and approaches, opportunities for professional…

This document presents an action plan developed by the Minnesota Early Care and Education Finance Commission during two years of study and deliberation to finance a state early care and education system that supports families and is focused on school readiness. Recommendations are presented in three categories: (1) more time and tools for better…

Today, institutional leaders face numerous struggles: intervention from boards of trustees, alumni, and state legislators; decline in financial support from the states; and competition in an increasingly global marketplace. While it is agreed that effective governance structures allow institutions to respond creatively to these challenges, how…

Examines changes in children's health insurance status and utilization of health services in the past decade, using 1977 National Medical Care Expenditure Survey data and 1987 National Medical Expenditure Survey data. Policies that could reduce the number of uninsured children (mandated employment-related coverage and incremental Medicaid…

An eight-year study of 49 schools purporting to practice and apply Quality Management (QM) techniques and processes uncovered some revealing differences between what respondents thought "should be" happening in these schools and what they reported was happening. The gaps uncovered could be recognized as differences between rhetoric and…

This article shares one educational leadership program's experiences with the use of student portfolios to assist in assessment of the program's effectiveness in preparing aspiring school principals. The authors begin with a discussion of market pressures for program reforms, which include the use of student portfolios for student assessment.…

Measures of quality are now in widespread use across states as part of quality improvement initiatives. For example, many states are currently using global measures of quality that were first developed for research and practice purposes (such as the Environmental Rating Scales) in their Quality Rating Systems (QRSs). Although global quality…

To examine reasons for a 3-year decline in enrollment in evening courses at North Arkansas Community/Technical College, a project was undertaken to examine evening students' opinions of scheduling and evening program services at the college. A review of the literature on evening programs and methods to assess student opinions was conducted, and a…