The traditional definition of student persistence, advanced by Vincent Tinto in 1975, is that of attendance until degree completion. This model, however, does not adequately reflect community college student attendance patterns. To develop a conceptual model of community college student persistence, a study was conducted of the attendance patterns…

This report presents five case studies of teaching for understanding in the arts. The first two studies are of expert elementary music teachers who engaged in weekly planning together. In the case of Anna Spaulding, a first grade lesson is presented in detail as well as a description of how this teacher conceived of music as a discipline, planned…

This manual provides a detailed description of the components of Bridging the Gap (BTG), a unique model of workplace training and support for developmentally disabled adults. It discusses how it was implemented and presents a curriculum outline with sample learning activities. The first section describes the interagency cooperation that made the…

The Reform of Secondary Education carried out in Spain in recent years has given rise to an increased number of options for students. This study empirically analyzed the consistency between options chosen by students in secondary education and the later demand for degrees at the higher education level. The sample consisted of two cohorts of…

The accountability system that is being implemented in the Dallas Independent School District (Texas) is a three-tier system. The first tier focuses at the school level. The second involves the District Improvement Plan, setting district accountability objectives. The third tier involves school effectiveness indices, which take into account…

Good performance criteria can and must help define educational goals and serve as an instructional tool in the classroom. The rationale for considering instructional usefulness when designing performance criteria begins with the proposition that clearly stated performance criteria are excellent instructional tools. It is also apparent that…

This report provides an evaluation of the American Council on Education (ACE) Fellowship Program as assessed by 147 of its past Fellows and their Mentors. This program is intended to develop administrative skills of mid career faculty and administrators (about 30 per year) who, under the guidance of a mentor, spend a year observing and…

In 1987 the Toronto (Ontario, Canada) Board of Education launched the development of the Toronto Board Benchmark Program to establish benchmarks, which are samples of student performance on a wide range of language and mathematics tasks. These samples, in print and video, show what students in grades 3, 6, and 8 can do on learning tasks based on…

As part of the special education curriculum developed by the Puerto Rico Department of Public Instruction, this teacher's guide (in Spanish) presents a basic curriculum for reading skills. The curriculum is designed so that the defined skills will meet the needs of children with disabilities. The form in which teachers and other professionals will…

Rate of retention in grade is a measure of the number of students who repeat the grade they were in the year before. This report of retention rates is produced annually for the Austin (Texas) Independent School District, but contains information produced after the beginning of the school year and data produced at the end of the school year…

This instructional package contains materials for four 1-hour lessons to train current and future auto body repairers and auto mechanics in proper safety and health protection measures. The materials are designed to be incorporated into training and/or recertification courses at high schools, trade schools, and community colleges. Included in the…

Over the past decade, the autonomously owned and managed community-based organizations constituting the adult and community education (ACE) sector in Victoria, Australia, and the Victorian government have embarked on a partnership to create lifelong learning opportunities for adults. After extensive consultation with stakeholders in the ACE…

This report discusses the development of a citizens' agenda for higher education in Illinois, presenting a set of initial goals and the reasoning behind them. It reviews the importance of higher education for a productive citizenry and the economic benefits of higher education. The report proposes eight goals that are designed to increase the…

This paper describes a study partially supported by a grant from the Institute on Race and Ethnicity of the University of Wisconsin (UW) System. The study was designed to examine the major factors, including distance teaching and learning and relevant technological innovations, that affect adult education for ethnic minorities; for the purpose of…

To meet the nation's need for a well-educated workforce in the 21st century, President Clinton and Vice President Gore have challenged the nation's educators and high technology industry leaders to work together on new ways to accelerate student learning with technology. The Technology Innovation Challenge Grants represented in this publication…