A naturalistic approach to evaluation is illustrated through the description of the evaluation of a small-scale agricultural project in a village in Mali, West Africa. The evaluation considered program impact as well as the quality of the conclusions drawn using the illuminative model of evaluation. (SLD)

Discusses population education efforts to help people understand the nature, causes, and implications of population processes. Includes current regional emphases, formal programs, management and administration, and future issues. Emphasizes basic concepts such as respect for others, especially for females, self-respect and self esteem, the…

Since 1959, ACT has collected and reported data on students' academic readiness for college. This report provides a college and career readiness snapshot of the ACT-tested high school class of 2011. ACT has long defined college and career readiness as the acquisition of the knowledge and skills a student needs to enroll and succeed in…

For developmental education students, rates of developmental math course completion and persistence into required college-level math courses are particularly low. This literature review examines the evidence base on one potential means for improving the course completion and learning outcomes of developmental mathematics students: reforming…

The developmental education process, as it is typically implemented in colleges across the country, seems straightforward: underprepared students are assessed and placed into an appropriate developmental course sequence designed to prepare them for college-level work; once finished with the sequence, these students presumably then move on to…

"Building Your Program" is intended to help mental health authorities, agency administrators, and program leaders think through and develop Supported Education. The first part of this booklet gives you background information about the Supported Education model. Specific information about your role in implementing and sustaining Supported Education…

Career Academies are small learning communities established at the high school level that use career strands as an organizing framework for learning and instruction, as well as for engaging the interest and energies of students. Standards common to well-designed Career Academy: (1) Central goal of preparing students for higher education and…

Youth experiencing homelessness or in foster care face numerous barriers to higher education. Inadequate college readiness, the complexity of the financial aid process, and lack of housing and support services once enrolled in college make obtaining a college degree an often insurmountable challenge. Yet a college education offers these youth the…

Adult students, whether new or returning to higher education, experience a unique set of transition challenges. This chapter highlights the barriers facing adult students and offers ways to overcome them. For many adult students, returning to college and fulfilling their goals is much like building a house of cards. In order to be successful, each…

Undergraduate transfer is a fact of life. At least 40 percent of students attend more than one institution on their path to a baccalaureate degree. Some students initially attend a two-year college, so transfer is to be expected if they seek a baccalaureate. Two-year college students are not the only ones who transfer. Data from the Beginning…

This paper presents new evidence on the effect of remediation using a large longitudinal dataset of Texas students. The authors study the effect of being in any remediation, regardless of subject, and also investigate the effect of remediation in different subjects. In particular, they examine whether remediation in math improves student outcomes.…

This column provides brief summaries of transition-related articles published in 2008 in other professional journals. The 70 articles included descriptive, experimental, and qualitative research as well as program descriptions, conceptual papers, and practitioner pieces. All areas of Kohler's (1996) Kohler, P. D. (1996). "Preparing youth with…

Many U.S. students must pass a standards-based exit exam to earn a high school diploma. The degree to which exit exams and state standards properly signal to students their preparedness for postsecondary schooling has been questioned. The alignment of test scores with college grades for students at the University of Arizona (n = 2,667) who took…

This paper offers an interpretation of the role of emotions in understanding the transitions that young people make to university. I draw on qualitative research with a group of non-traditional students, entering elite universities, to argue that youth transitions are emotional as well instrumental affairs. I argue that choice-making processes…

This article discusses basic writing pedagogy at a two-year tribal college, an institution type that has not been visible in the basic writing literature to date. In many tribal college contexts, socioeconomic challenges, under-resourced K-12 schools, and linguistic diversity all contribute to high student placement rates into…