Since 2002, North Carolina, under the leadership of Governor Mike Easley and the North Carolina Professional Teaching Standards Commission, has worked to improve understanding of a critical factor in student learning and teacher retention: the conditions under which teachers work. In 2006, 66 percent (more than 75,000) school-based licensed…

This document contains the four issues of the 2000-2001 FACCCTs, the journal of the Faculty Association of California Community Colleges. The September 2000 issue includes a collection of observations on academic integrity and cheating, an article describing a history of opportunities for women in higher education, and editorial comments on a…

This guidebook, prepared by a faculty committee at Michigan State University (MSU) in 1995-96, is intended to encourage discussion of quality outreach among faculty, staff, administrators, and university collaborators. Its specific purpose is to develop an understanding of what constitutes quality outreach, to enhance unit-level planning for…

Growing dissatisfaction makes major structural changes requiring legislative, popular initiatives, or the approval of governing authorities possible in U.S. schools. Schools raising academic achievement emphasize high student expectations, classroom management, positive feedback, tailored teaching strategies, professional work environments, and…

This book identifies how consensus on vocational education and training (VET) policy is sought in a number of countries where interesting models have emerged. The focus of the book is on the principles of stakeholding and consensus applied to policy formulation and implementation in vocational education and training. The international case studies…

The Learn-Ed Nations Inventory was designed by a panel of American Indian and Alaska Native master educators to determine how and to what extent a school is serving Native students and supporting their needs. The inventory encompasses all factors impinging on students, both directly and indirectly. Nine key school areas were identified to be…

Continuous improvement in the quality of service offered to children, young people, parents and carers has been a key priority of the education system in Scotland over many years. Scottish pre-school centres and schools have well-established processes for self-evaluation based on the quality indicators in "How good is our school?" (1996,…

If democratic workplace theories now popular in Scandinavian countries were to be widely applied in the United States, major changes would be necessary in education. To produce workers able to participate in problem solving and decision making, the schools would have to liberate learning from authority-bound, drill-oriented practices. (PP)

Conflicting socioeconomic forces have influenced problem-solving and decision-making methods in special education. Before the 1970s, a medical model was used that emphasized identification of disabilities. The legal model stresses individual needs and shared decision making among educators and their clients. Advantages and disadvantages of each…

This paper attempts to evaluate and explain the dynamic processes of decision-making and leadership development through participatory research, using the Malaysian experience as a case study. The focus is on the structural and situational constraints in the Malaysian rural society, the formal political machinery and the implementation of…

Discusses the move toward teaching strategies designed to empower students, sharing one university professor's experiences with a cooperative learning method of student assessment in a teacher training multicultural education course that utilized an empowering model. (SM)

Describes participants' experiences in collaboratively teaching a social studies methods course as part of a Professional Development School project, noting changes in participants' attitudes and apprehensions. Data from taped conversations, journals, and interviews indicated that weekly interactions and joint decision making helped surmount…

Presents findings from a study assessing the reactions of 34 community colleges to California Assembly Bill 1725 passed in 1988, which mandated shared governance for the state's 107 community colleges. Concludes that AB 1725 is working as it was intended in the majority of schools. Contains 69 references. (JDI)

A year-long ethnographic investigation examined how stakeholders in an Appalachian Kentucky high school addressed educational problems that they had targeted for reform while resisting state priorities and policies mandated in the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA). Contrasts KERA objectives with cultural themes prominent in this poor…

Through a four-part survey, compares male and female faculty (n=51) in terms of their involvement in and perceptions of their participation in campus service, governance, and policy-making activities. Recommends service involvement as a means for women to affect policy and institutional change as well as prepare for future administrative…