This brief report addresses two issues. One is the stagnation in the rate at which young people are receiving 4-year college degrees, and the increasingly high financial barriers to attending college. The other is the large, and increasing, inequality in opportunity to achieve a college education. At the same time, economists have warned that our…

In North Carolina, work force development education (WDE) begins in grade 6 with exploratory courses and leads to specialized classroom instruction in grades 11 and 12. Since 1992-1993, North Carolina's WDE programs have been evaluated with respect to eight long-range performance standards. Only in the case of standard 1 (all students will have…

This booklet describes the success of tech prep under the federal school-to-work (STW) initiative and provides case studies showing how schools and businesses are using tech prep to create the world's best work force for the new millennium. The first section discusses the payoff from STW, and the second section describes tech prep. Section 3…

Past rural policies are reviewed, noting the effects of globalization and information technology. Rural business profits can be maximized by direct cost or value-added competition, but cost competition limits the development of productive capacity and leads to unequal income distribution. In contrast, value-added competition could create steep…

This document states that many studies have identified faculty recruitment as a specific job responsibility of college department chairs. Because the recruitment process is time consuming and costly, the chair must also ensure that recruitment leads to retention. This paper closely examines what strategies academic chairs use to recruit and retain…

This symposium on transfer of learning consists of four presentations. "The Influence of the Implementation of a Transfer Management Intervention on Transfer of Training" (Patricia R. Saylor, Marijke T. Kehrhahn) reports a study that evaluated effectiveness of transfer management interventions provided by a change facilitator in…

Although some districts and areas have experienced difficulty finding good principals, there are far more candidates certified to be principals than there are principal vacancies to fill. This report describes a study based on a written indepth survey of human-resource directors supplemented by formal survey questions to school superintendents and…

The Latvian economy has undergone major changes during transition to a market economy after regaining independence in 1991. The unfavorable world economic situation has caused its growth to fall below potential. The vocational education and training (VET) system has traditionally been school-based. There are 120 VET institutions with a large…

This analysis examines the effects of school and organizational characteristics on teacher turnover and, in turn, school staffing problems. The analyses are based on data from the Schools and Staffing Survey and its supplement, the Teacher Followup Survey, a large, comprehensive, nationally representative survey of teachers and schools conducted…

This publication discusses the new educational environment of global competition between and among public and private higher education institutions, as well as new corporate providers of educational services, and how it will affect campus activities and board of trustee decision-making processes. The report notes the many powerful external forces…

This issue focuses on the National Alliance of Business's work with employers to sort out how certificates can most effectively indicate workplace skills and requirements and confirm that certified individuals possess them. "Skills Certificates Signal Competencies in a Demand-Driven Economy" discusses the needs to which certificates respond; how…

The question of whether human resource development (HRD) should assume a leadership role in social responsibility has not been seriously or rigorously addressed in the HRD literature. As a multidisciplinary field, HRD is influenced not only by societal needs but also by underlying disciplines, including economics, psychology, general systems,…

This report examines what is currently known about the employment of college graduates in the United Kingdom (U.K.). The first two sections offer an historical and comparative overview of the issue and a discussion of the methodology. A third section examines and discusses findings from the literature on employer needs and wants. This is followed…

This packet contains three papers from a symposium on cross-cultural issues in human resource development (HRD). The first paper, "The Perceptions of Physical Therapy Students Regarding the Provision of Transcultural Care" (Theresa J. Kraemer), examines the perceptions of 12 entry-level master's degree program physical therapy (PT)…

Three presentations are provided from Symposium 37, Workforce Development, of the Academy of Human Resource Development (HRD) 2000 Conference Proceedings. "Unemployment and Low-Literacy among Welfare Recipients: Continuum of Literacy Program Models" (Larry G. Martin) presents a continuum of four types of literacy programs--academic, situated…