This article is an open letter to English teachers by the author, a second-year graduate student in English education doing substitute teaching. She argues that as a substitute teacher, expectations of her teaching abilities and those of most substitute teachers are incredibly low, and that low expectations often result in low performance. Here,…

Parkway School District in Chesterfield, Mo., creates a system in which all their employees have opportunities to experience ongoing professional learning. District leadership believes that all employees, whether or not they interact with students, contribute to the school district's success. The Parkway support staff development is building a…

Project management covers a wide range of skills and is one of the best forms of staff development available for the development of skills by doing. This publication is for the use of staff involved in e-learning development projects. An introduction and overview includes discussion of e-learning projects in general and why they are undertaken;…

Succession planning assures the continuity of an organization's leadership by developing candidates for key management positions. This report provides: (1) a summary of selected works on succession planning for positions in middle to upper management; (2) a general understanding of the nature and extent of succession planning for human resources…

Because of the rising interest in the relevance of psychology to missions, a number of empirical studies have been completed which address various issues pertaining to missionary selection, stress, and ongoing functioning. This paper presents a critique and synthesis of the empirical literature relevant to missionary selection, stress, and…

As part of a follow-up of 1993-94 graduates, Piedmont Virginia Community College (PVCC) conducted a study of graduates' employers to determine their satisfaction with graduates' job skills, performance, and academic preparation. Surveys were sent to 43 employers of graduates who were not self-employed and who gave permission for their employers to…

Despite a century-long history of teacher-incentive programs in the United States, discovering what matters to teachers and how best to motivate them remains a complex puzzle. This paper features a literature review that investigates the motivational dimension of teacher performance and constructs a theory of teacher motivation. The paper…

A literature review was conducted to find evidence that bachelor-degree prepared registered nurses (RNs) perform sufficiently better than associate degree or diploma-prepared RNs to justify a change in status proposed by the American Nurses Association. Three computer databases were searched as well as the Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied…

This document contains four papers from a symposium on integrating learning and performance in human resource development (HRD). "Action Imperatives that Impact Knowledge Performance and Financial Performance in the Learning Organization: An Exploratory Model" (Gary L. Selden, Karen E. Watkins, Thomas Valentine, Victoria J. Marsick)…

This paper discusses the reliability of college faculty peer evaluations. Three evaluation methods are compared: observation; impressionistic; and documentation review. The quality of information provided by each method is examined based on five areas: the purpose of the data being collected; what is being measured; who is responsible for doing…

In 1992, a survey was conducted of the employers of 49 1989-90 graduates of Piedmont Virginia Community College (PVCC) who had previously given permission for their employers to be contacted. Of the employers surveyed, 33 completed and returned valid surveys, for a response rate of 67.3%. Results of the survey included the following: (1)…

This report describes a workshop at which Army researchers presented some results from the first phase of a two-phase Joint-Service Project. (The objective of this phase was to determine if technically adequate criterion measures can be developed that are representative of job performance.) Part I of the report presents the preliminary results of…

This report presents selected interim results from a study designed to assess the quality of higher education through a survey of employer satisfaction with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of the university graduates they employ. A 62-item survey questionnaire was developed and sent to employers in the West Midlands region of England. The…

A synthesis of literature on administrator assessment and staff development and a directory of resources are presented in this document. Section 1 discusses several aspects of administrator evaluation--the purposes of performance assessment; the components of evaluation; and the issues, processes, and recommendations for an effective evaluation…

Relatively high levels of public assistance use, and low levels of labor force participation among recent arrivals, have focused attention on the ability of refugees to attain self-sufficiency reasonably soon after entering this country. A survey focusing on Southeast Asian refugees resettled in the United States since 1975 indicates that refugees…