Describes the process of creating the John Hope Franklin Institute at Duke University, including the sometimes complicated collaboration between the committee wishing to honor Franklin (a renowned historian) and the one planning a new humanities center; major players in its development; and funding issues. (EV)

Describes the "slow and steady" approach to growth embraced by the owner of Stratford College, a Virginia-based, for-profit school that offers degrees in the culinary arts, information technology, and hotel and event management and business. (EV)

Describes the process used to develop a wilderness education plan for the Pecos Wilderness in northern New Mexico. The process comprised four general steps: (1) collect background information, (2) identify wilderness education issues; (3) analyze the wilderness education issues; and (4) develop general management recommendations. (Contains 21…

Discusses how, despite tight budgets and changing clientele, campus recreation professionals are using the entrepreneurial spirit to do more with less in developing feasible facilities and programming. (GR)

The first year of coordinating a local Technology Student Association (TSA) leadership conference is the most challenging. An organizer will quickly learn from his or her successes and failures and will make appropriate adjustments the following year. Hosting a conference requires a lot of work but it is very rewarding. The benefits of being…

The WAC director, composition director, director of Institutional Assessment (OIA), and WAC/OIA liaison describe the programmatic "needs" and "wants" they balanced in the plan they collaboratively designed to respond to a state mandate for "value-added" writing assessment. To satisfy this mandate, as they explain,…

The National Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center (NECTAC) was charged by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) from 2001-2006 to develop, implement, and evaluate an approach to technical assistance that would result in sustainable systems change in state Early Intervention and Preschool Special…

Qatar has recently positioned itself to be a leader in education. Central to the country's efforts is the implementation of reforms to its K-12 education system. Central to the reform initiatives was the development of internationally benchmarked curriculum standards in four subjects: Arabic, English as a foreign language, mathematics, and…

A project funded through the National Vocational Education and Training Research and Evaluation program investigated higher education programs--mostly bachelor's and associate degrees--offered by technical and further education (TAFE) institutes. This overview highlights the implications for TAFE management identified through this project. [This…

Technical assistance (TA) has long been a standard, overarching strategy for assisting, states, agencies, family members, and practitioners with building capacity for service and system change initiatives. But, what is meant by the term "technical assistance"? What is known about the technical assistance strategies that are likely to…

The 2009 Professional Development Schools National Conference recognized the North Florida Urban Professional Development School Partnership for its outstanding work in an urban education context and so named it one of the three recipients of the first-ever National Association for Professional Development Schools Award for Exemplary Professional…

Project WetKids (www.projectwetkids.net) provides wetland, environmental, estuary, and watershed experiences with local scientists, engineers, and naturalists to Pascagoula, Mississippi students and their families. Extensive activities provide participants: (1) real world, locally relevant science-based events; (2) meaningful scientific…

This paper presents background, implementation, and feasibility findings associated with planning and conducting an after-school intervention program in an alternative education setting designed to prevent the initiation and escalation of violence and substance abuse among urban African American youth at high risk for life-long problem behaviors.…

Our urban-located land grant institution has long been committed to engaged research, teaching, and service. This paper describes efforts to articulate and implement a strategic urban land grant vision that places urban/metropolitan engagement at the center of our institution's "urban age" future. We describe intentional and broad-based efforts in…

The evolution of several interrelated myths reflects a combination of misinterpretation of statistics, the commendable intention of ensuring that bias and prejudice do not play roles in the provision of services to underrepresented populations of gifted students, and misapplication of programming options for gifted students. Separately, these…