Examines the current status of library technical assistant (LTA) programs in North America, lists the programs, and describes their major features. Makes suggestions for future directions, including distance learning, specialization within programs, continuing education, articulation agreements with bachelor's degree programs, and an increase in…

Describes issues surrounding the general weakness in formal statistics education for both undergraduate and graduate students, and the minimal collaboration between statisticians and atmospheric scientists. Recommends statistics curriculum guidelines for atmospheric science students and ways to improve overall interaction between the disciplines.…

The National Education Association's Teacher Education Initiative restructures teacher preparation around principles of partnership, coherent knowledge base, systemic internal change, systematic external change, equity and diversity, and teacher leadership. (SK)

A review of rehabilitation, job training, and educational programs available to inmates in Nigerian prisons finds that they are inadequate to prepare prisoners for postprison life. Recommendations include more part-time instructors, diversification of vocational education, establishment of library services, and focus on lifelong learning. (SK)

Used multiple sources of data, including archival material, focus groups and questionnaires, to evaluate a renewal effort that involved a university school of education and human services and three diverse school systems: urban, suburban, and rural. Findings indicate the consistency of efforts to bring about positive change. Makes seven…

Conducted a formative evaluation of an osteoporosis prevention health education program using several methods, including questionnaires completed by 256 women, and then compared formative evaluation results to those of a summative evaluation focusing on the same target group. Results show the usefulness of formative evaluation for strengthening…

Discusses how one Early Head Start program has benefited from collaborating with researchers. Notes that the program has clarified its theory of change, reflected on effective strategies, and trained staff on practices during home visits. Asserts that by using information about the quality of home visits, the program now provides better services…

Discusses the strengths and weaknesses of administrative databases, issues with their implementation and data analysis, and effective presentation of their data at different levels in child welfare organizations. Focuses on the development and implementation of Washington state's Children's Administration's administrative database, the Case and…

This study was conducted to provide further information regarding factors associated with educational evaluation, using a qualitative approach. Fifty-five interviews were carried out with school principals. The results of the present study supported the notion that the qualitative methods could provide information that quantitative procedures…

Background/Context: Community colleges are central to the United States' college completion goals. A popular strategy pushed by a number of influential policy organizations and foundations is a policy of tying state funding to community college completions, otherwise known simply as performance funding. This is happening despite little to no…

In today's rapidly changing global economy, "21st century skills" means much more than proficiency in basic academic subjects. One of the most important noncognitive competencies for student success is conscientiousness, which encompasses traits such as perseverance, self-regulation, resilience, and responsibility. Researchers have found…

Most special education administrators do not get the chance to network regularly with professional peers to discuss job challenges and strategies. School-district special education directors routinely juggle complex, difficult, time-consuming, and emotion-laden job demands, but when things get tough, they usually find themselves solving problems…

In a series of New Jersey Supreme Court decisions known as Abbott v. Burke, the 28 (now 31) urban school districts serving the state's poorest students were ordered to create systems of high-quality preschool for all three- and four-year-old children, beginning in the 1999-2000 school year. The Abbott Preschool Program now serves approximately…

Introduction: Little is known regarding how to accomplish large-scale health care improvement. Our goal is to improve the quality of chronic disease care in all primary care practices throughout North Carolina. Methods: Methods for improvement include (1) common quality measures and shared data system; (2) rapid cycle improvement principles; (3)…

Announced by government in "New Challenges, New Chances" in December 2011, the sector-led Commission on Adult Vocational Teaching and Learning has been tasked with raising the quality, and improving the outcomes and impact, of adult vocational teaching and learning for learners and employers. It is a commission focused on the future--of…