In this article the authors reason that current reform efforts in education--such as those fueled by Race to the Top (www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop) or the Common Core Standards (www.commoncorestandards.org)--emphasize the need to improve teacher preparation programs in ways that ensure graduates are ready for the realities in today's…

The Winthrop University-School Partnership Network is a dynamic, diverse, and growing partnership of educators from nine school districts, thirty schools, and Winthrop University. As a Network, they have a vision of shared responsibility for student achievement through clinically-based teacher preparation, sustained collaborative professional…

On August 5, 2006, more than 300 South Carolina National Board Certified Teachers[R] (NBCTs) assembled in Columbia at a policy summit to address the vexing problem of recruiting and retaining accomplished teachers in high-needs schools. Before this summit, the NBCTs read a number of background papers and research summaries. During the summit, they…

Utah's K-3 Reading Improvement Program provides state matching funds to help districts and charter schools achieve the state's goal of having third graders read at or above grade level. All 40 Utah school districts took part in both Year 1 (2004/05) and Year 2 (2005/06) of the program, and the number of participating charter schools increased in…

"Caring School Community"[TM] ("CSC") is a modified version of a program formerly known as the "Child Development Project" ("CDP"). The "CSC" program has been recently revised to eliminate some elements of the "CDP" that were shown in evaluation studies to be inconsistently or poorly…

African American adolescents disproportionately perform poorly compared to peers in both behavioral and academic aspects of their educational experience. In this study, African American male students participated in an after-school program involving tutoring, group counseling, and various enrichment activities. All students were assessed regarding…

These four papers are from a symposium that was facilitated by Richard J. Torraco at the 1995 conference of the Academy of Human Resource Development (HRD). "Performance Technology--Isn't It Time We Found Some New Models?" (William J. Rothwell) reviews briefly two classic models, describes criteria for the high performance workplace…

From 1981 through 1983, 32 schools in 28 districts participated in the pilot study authorized by California's School Attendance Improvement Act. On the basis of that study, the first of this report's two chapters offers six steps for a comprehensive approach to improving attendance: (1) assessing actual attendance, (2) developing policies and…

This report summarizes the major findings and recommendations of the final evaluation of the State Dissemination Grants Program (SDGP), a major initiative within the mission of the National Institute of Education to assist state educational agencies (SEAs) in implementing, strengthening, and institutionalizing dissemination services that improve…

Problems in recruitment for big-time collegiate sports are updated, and an eleven-point improvement program is proposed. Statistics on football and basketball recruitment are updated, many through the 1985 season. New focus is placed on "blue chip" recruiting, and maps of recruiting by selected institutions, conferences, and states are…

This book presents an argument for school improvement and explains how it might be conducted. Three stages of evolutionary school improvement are identified and described: refinement, renovation, and redesign. It is suggested that the real task is not only innovating improvements; the real task is uniting teachers, administrators, and community…

The seven-member board of a Texas school district decided to scrutinize its own performance through a self-evaluation instrument used by each member to evaluate how the board functions, not how each individual functions. Benefits of board self-evaluation include reaffirmation of the board's role, encouragement of board harmony, and identification…

This paper describes an inservice training project in Colorado funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The goal of the project is to create a self-sustaining and expanding network of trained leaders in geographic education. The project addresses: (1) the need to improve and expand the geographic literacy of U.S. citizens; (2) the…

Replicating Success, a school improvement program in Philadelphia, is designed to raise the achievement level of all students in 30 selected, racially isolated, low achieving schools. Each school undertakes an extensive needs assessment process and then develops an individualized schoolwide plan which takes into account the characteristics of…

Efforts to improve the quality of business communication often include developing tailor-made short courses that are offered "in-house" to corporation management personnel. These following guidelines, based on one corporate writing teacher's experiences, should help others to develop writing courses for businesses: obtain samples of the types of…