This guide aims to provide a practical and comprehensive overview for United Kingdom parents and professionals wanting to support family learning at any level--community, local, regional, or national. Part 1 sets out the case for family learning today. Chapter 1 defines family learning and explains the fundamental principles underpinning it.…

This guide is a comprehensive manual for administrators who manage child care facilities. The guide provides practical help with the ultimate goal of improving the quality of programs for young children and helping directors and teachers be more effective in their work. The chapters are: (1) "Qualities and Characteristics of an Effective…

This paper discusses attempts made by the author to reinvigorate the College Honors Program at Union County College in New Jersey (UCC). Created in 1985 to offer an enriched learning experience for exceptional liberal arts students, the Honors Program helps students develop their thinking skills and achieve academic success. However, due to…

Current debates about welfare reform center on the upcoming reauthorization of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) legislation. The provisions of TANF include the elimination of the entitlement to cash assistance, block grant funding to the states, mandatory work requirements, sanctions, a 5-year limit on cash assistance, and…

Addresses issues related to the mortality of elementary science programs, considering role of curriculum planners, teachers, and building principals. Gives examples of factors responsible (in the form of a "10 most wanted poster") with at least one countermeasure for each. (JM)

In this series of short articles, authors discuss matters that affect vocational education in the comprehensive high school setting, considering nine specific occupational or service programs. (SK)

Section One of this report describes art education as it exists in American schools. Section Two discusses societal factors adversely affecting art education. Section Three examines National Endowment policy for improving art education. Section Four discusses deceptive panaceas for such improvement. Section Five provides recommendations for…

Compares the characteristics of current foster carers with those of earlier years and assesses the impact on turnover and recruitment of the financial and professional support carers receive. Indicates that financial reward and the support infrastructure that links social workers and foster carer groups play an important part in attracting and…

North Carolina business leaders, legislators, and educators are reshaping teacher education by simultaneously recruiting the brightest high school seniors and restructuring teacher education. The North Carolina Teaching Fellows Program provides scholarships to outstanding high school seniors who agree to teach for four years in a North Carolina…

Identifies issues in educating students with disabilities who enter postsecondary programs intending to teach individuals with disabilities. The article discusses legal issues guaranteeing equal educational access, questions assumptions about teacher preparation, and mentions contributions to educational quality made by people with disabilities.…

An alternative mathematics preparation program for K-8 teachers is described as an existence proof that steadily increasing effectiveness of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) preparation is possible. The program is based on treating every lesson in each of five mathematics content and methods courses as objects of study.…

Nationwide, close to 40 million adults lack a high school diploma or a General Educational Development (GED) credential. About a quarter of high school freshmen do not graduate in four years, and while many high school dropouts eventually do attend GED preparation classes, too few ever pass the GED exam or go on to college. Students with only a…

The federal School Improvement Grants (SIG) program, to which $3 billion were allocated under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), supports schools attempting to turn around a history of low performance. School turnaround also is a focus of Race to the Top (RTT), another ARRA-supported initiative, which involved a roughly $4…

Paraprofessionals are widely employed in response to intervention (RTI) settings to provide instruction to students at-risk for reading disabilities. However, little research has addressed effective and efficient ways to train these paraprofessionals to deliver instruction with high fidelity. In addition, given the limited time and finances…

Policymakers across the nation are leading efforts to ensure that every classroom has an effective teacher. Faced with the need to dramatically improve student outcomes, states have embraced a policy agenda that promotes and supports teacher quality in many ways, including developing evaluation and compensation policies, targeting professional…