The populations of Mexican Americans and other Latinos in Berwyn and Cicero, Illinois--two of Chicago's oldest suburbs--have increased dramatically in the last decade. This needs assessment interviewed 172 people individually and in 19 focus groups. Findings indicate that education, children, and youth were the top priorities for Latinos and…

This study investigated differences among professional staff members' commitment to continuous learning and improvement in high-performing schools differentiated by student academic performance and disaggregated by race and socioeconomic status. A total of 48 high-performing schools were identified by Kentucky Department of Education staff based…

This report highlights the research on how schools across the country have successfully transformed themselves into high-performing schools. It provides suggestions for how school leaders can use this knowledge base as they examine their schools' instructional and administrative practices. Chapter titles reflect the contents: (1)…

This report recounts experiences of 99 single parents in British Columbia and New Brunswick who were offered the opportunity to receive cash payments in addition to their earnings if they left the income assistance (IA) rolls and took full-time jobs. The experiences are from participants of focus groups who were mostly female single parents, about…

This chapter discusses the development of achievement motivation during adolescence from the perspective of expectancy-value theory, and explains how adolescents' expectancies for success and achievement values change during adolescence, particularly during educational transitions such as that from elementary to middle school and from middle to…

This step-by-step guide reviews important issues and things to consider for beginning, substitute, returning, and emergency credential teachers. The 11 chapters focus on: (1) "Getting Ready to Interview: Personal Reflection, Picking the Right Path, and Interview Readiness"; (2) "Where It All Happens: Creating the Right Atmosphere"; (3) "So Much to…

This report outlines the characteristics that appear to make the process of action research effective in improving student outcomes and summarizes some strategies that practitioners believe can be transferred using the process. Part 1 describes the process followed by the successful projects and shares the insights they gained. Characteristics…

Guided by a conceptual model linking discrepancies between parent and adolescent developmental expectations and adolescent adjustment and the quality of the parent-adolescent relationship, this study examined adolescent and parent beliefs about the age at which specific competencies should appear. Developmental timetables were grouped into…

Fifty-one years of working in Appalachia on land resettlement and preservation of local values have taught Marie Cirillo the importance of not thinking in terms of either/or. It is not science/technology versus indigenous knowledge; it is how one connects the two so there can be proper balance. It is not capital versus labor; it is not…

This short bibliography summarizes printed resources and videotapes relating to children and youth with learning disabilities. Seventeen books are listed that address: (1) career planning; (2) common learning disabilities and coping with learning disabilities; (3) teaching adolescents with learning disabilities; (4) child rearing; (5) learning…

This book describes a study of 10 inner city schools in the United Kingdom which showed how the empathy and imagination of teachers and principals, as well as culturally relevant curricula and stimulating teaching, helped enable bilingual students to achieve. The first part of the book describes the main issues: what counts as achievement for…

Leading-edge firms (LEFs)--at the forefront of their industry in terms of growth or market share--may influence skill development through diffusion of technology, products, or practices and use of market power to set standards or change customer businesses. Study of LEFs can identify the type and mix of skills needed in the industry. LEFs are…

This paper reports on a study on the perceived effectiveness of educational resources within the context of a single course in a first-year biology program at the University of Sydney (Australia). The overall study examined the dynamic state of perceptions towards these resources by the major stakeholders involved with the course (students,…

Student Development in the First College Year provides a detailed overview of some of the most commonly referenced theories of learning and development in the college years. What sets this primer apart from other treatments of student development theory is its careful attention to the first college year and the wide range of educational…

Assuring the quality of education provision is a fundamental aspect of gaining and maintaining credibility for programmes, institutions and national systems of higher education worldwide. Despite a long and generally successful track record, open and distance learning (ODL) is still required to prove that the quality of student learning is at…