Describes reorganization of an early childhood education program for teachers at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. Lists changes in program elements, highlights program goals, describes key conceptual features, and includes student comments as evidence of program effectiveness. Notes that program focus is developing the students' capacity…

Describes a fund raising project, the "palette of prizes," to raise money for theatre for children in Blair County, Pennsylvania. Discusses creation of theater presentations involving nearly the entire student body. Suggests 11 lessons for other communities interested in using Blair County's arts education programming as a model. Discusses…

Outlines the policy context, purpose, design, and implementation of the Graduating Senior Survey at the University of Texas (El Paso). Discusses strategies to maximize campus involvement in using survey results concerning campus climate, the effectiveness of academic programs, and student services for systematic planning involving faculty,…

Examined effects of Smart Start, a broad-based community initiative, on the quality of child care for North Carolina preschoolers. Found that care quality, as measured by the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale, was significantly higher in 1996 than in 1994. Child care quality in 1996 was related to the number of local quality improvement…

To expand understanding of how to improve efficacy as well as enhance the implementation of effective aftercare programs, there is a need to study the following issues: how to operationalize aftercare as usual, how to improve retention and engagement in aftercare, and how to determine or match the optimal duration, dosage, and specificity of…

In this article, the importance of clinical supervision for school counselors is examined in terms of prior literature and the school counseling context. Standards relative to supervision are presented, followed by an overview of each article in the special section of the Counselor Education and Supervision journal (Vol. 45, No. 4, June 2006).

Testing and accountability programs can lead to some positive changes towards student performance. Here, Jones and Egley explore on whether Florida administrators thought that there was anything that could be done to improve the country's testing program in order to reduce or eliminate the types of concerns raised in George's study by conducting a…

"Engineering Criteria 2000" (EC 2000), the recently revised set of accreditation criteria for engineering programs in the USA, places considerable stress on outcomes assessments. EC 2000 requires the assessment results to be used to identify program improvements and for such usage and the resulting improvements to be documented. While…

The Performance Assessment for California Teachers (PACT) was developed in response to a California State mandate (SB 2042), requiring teacher preparation programs to use performance assessments as one measure in making credentialing decisions. In this article, results are examined from statewide implementation of the PACT assessments during the…

Objective: To describe how content analysis of the news assists media advocates. Methods: A description of how findings from the Berkeley Media Studies Group's research on how 2 public health issues have been portrayed in the news has informed media advocacy. Results: For media advocates, the research suggests they make themselves available to…

A school or district's technology education program consists of a series of courses that address standards. Recent trends (e.g., No Child Left Behind), administrative pressures to increase student achievement, or the school's desire to align with standards, challenge the technology education teacher to implement new courses into the technology…

Regular participation in out-of-school time activities is associated with benefits for children. However, children cannot reap the benefits of program participation if they do not attend programs in the first place. This brief focuses on ways in which out-of-school time programs can improve the attendance and retention of children and youth in…

The Higher Learning Commission (HLC), a commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA), accredits Wyoming's seven community colleges. Institutional accreditation is a voluntary process that serves the critical purposes of quality assurance and institutional and program improvement. Colleges that are accredited by the HLC…

This report summarizes the results from new teacher surveys conducted in the Austin Independent School District during spring 2007. New teachers were asked about activities and support provided by their mentor teachers, their level of implementation of instructional practices, and their professional development needs.

In this update, Linton provides a report on what transpired during the invitational technical assistance training meeting for State adult correctional education programs titled "Making Data Work for You," which was hosted by the Department of Education a year ago. As a key part of that training, States shared their efforts to utilize…