Influences of alternative policies that state governments and the federal government use to improve child-care centers and preschools are assessed based on a survey of 1,805 centers in 36 states. Center quality is generally higher in centers receiving greater subsidies. Implications of findings for policy in managed choice school settings are…

Discusses the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) and the changing Asia Pacific library scene under the broad headings of the three phases of technology innovation. Highlights include WorldCat and the OCLC shared cataloging system; resource sharing and interlibrary loan; enriching OCLC online catalog with Asian collections; and future outlooks.…

Comments on Early and Winton's research on the characteristics of early childhood teacher preparation programs at 2- and 4-year institutions, noting that these programs need to expand the racial diversity of faculty, define issues in the needs of practitioners and the early childhood field when designing course content, and provide adequate…

Public and employer perceptions of staff abilities and qualifications deployed in local studies collections may affect their status and influence and not least the funding the local studies facility may receive. The need to promote the service is also prompted by the growing use of local studies collections and the increasing importance of such…

California continues to widen access to local child care and preschool programs--albeit in fits and starts--for a variety of families. About 65% of all four year-olds statewide now attend a preschool center. Government spends $3.6 billion on early care and education programs statewide, including a three-fold increase in state spending since 1996.…

The Study of School Turnaround examines the improvement process in a purposive sample of 35 case study schools receiving federal funds through the School Improvement Grants (SIG) program over a three-year period (2010-11 to 2012-13 school years). This evaluation brief focuses on 11 of these SIG schools with high proportions of English Language…

This article talks about Achievement Through Technology and Innovation (ATTAIN) Act, a bill introduced by Senators Bingaman (D-NM), Burr (R-NC), and Murray (D-WA) and applauded by a coalition of education and industry groups. The proposed ATTAIN Act is similar to its companion in the House (HR 2449), and builds upon the Enhancing Education Through…

Transformation of public education requires the reawakening of the sleeping giant in the room: the learners. Students, teachers, and principals must develop a learner-centric, standards-driven school. "Reawakening the Learner" is a guide to creating just such an environment. Continua describe the journey of teachers, teacher leaders, and…

Technological progress has consistently driven remarkable advances in the U.S. economy, yet K-12 education sees little technological change compared to other sectors, even as U.S. K-12 students increasingly lag behind students in other nations. This proposal considers how we can take a signature American strength--innovation--and apply it to K-12…

It started with a dream: to create a national best practices teaching and learning center that would not only provide the best available care and education to children ages 0 to 5 years old, but would also serve as a model for adult learners and like-minded entities and individuals in the early education arena. Committed to elevating the quality…

The nation is in an era of policy reform aimed at improving the productivity and effectiveness of higher education. Major philanthropies and policy groups have converged around variations of the ambitious college completion goals announced by President Obama at the beginning of his administration. But at the same time, many state governments,…

The 12 winners of the federal Race to the Top competition have experienced near-universal challenges in turning their sweeping, multifaceted proposals into reality, among them a limited state capacity to execute fast, dramatic change and deeply rooted teacher-evaluation systems that have proved hard to transform. Reports unveiled by the U.S.…

In the aftermath of the devastating January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, international humanitarian groups and volunteers poured into the country, bolstering what was already one of the world's hot spots for nongovernmental organizations. But the magnitude of the disaster--an estimated 300,000 were killed and one million left homeless out of a…

This study investigated a Tier 2 intervention in the context of a response-to-intervention (RTI) model for 123 fourth-grade students identified as having a high probability of reading failure. A randomized control trial was used to evaluate the effects of a 24-session multicomponent supplemental intervention targeting fluency and expository…

The Building Blocks for Student Engagement (BBSE) protocol was designed to provide a consistent framework of common language and a visual point of reference shared among students, teachers and school leaders to keep a laser-like focus on the instructional core and student engagement. Grounded in brain-based learning and implemented in urban,…