The report opens with a discussion of how education and community are closely associated throughout traditional education and history, and how changes in one of these influence the other. It then turns to a review of past literature examining educational objectives and the skills needed by educators. Such skills must be used to adapt to the…

This workbook is part of a series devoted to all areas of charter-school development. The third of five workbooks, it focuses on assessment and accountability and examines such issues as academic accountability, fiscal accountability, public/parental accountability, rule compliance, assessment and evaluation, financial management, developing a…

This workbook is part of a series devoted to all areas of charter-school development. Fourth in the series, this volume focuses on governance and management, with an emphasis on creating an organizational structure, establishing strong leadership, handling personnel issues, creating a board and board bylaws, managing growth, and dealing with…

This report explores best practices of on- and off-campus disciplinary alternative programs in Texas. It is based on a study in which Texas' alternative-program practices were compared with best practices of alternative programs in the United States. Following a literature review of best alternative program practices, a survey was developed to…

"Speaking Personally" is the generic name given to one of the regular features of "The American Journal of Distance Education"--AJDE--an interview with a leading personality in the field. As implied in the title, interviewees have always been encouraged to talk in a relatively informal way. Since an interview has been reported in every issue of…

This report provides a performance and financial evaluation of Wisconsin's charter schools. It examines charter schools that were open during the 1997-98 school year, and it includes their educational programs, administrative policies, and enrollments. The report also details program expenditures, student performance, legal issues, and the effects…

Neither the hopes nor the fears of vouchers and charter schools, two programs proposed to reform education, have been realized. Many key questions remain unanswered. This research brief describes the work done by the authors of a larger work, "Rhetoric Versus Reality: What We Know and What We Need to Know About Vouchers and Charter Schools," in…

This directory presents information on 290 programs in colleges and universities nationwide for those who already have a bachelor's degree and want to complete requirements to earn a teaching license, a master's degree, or both. Information comes from a survey of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education's member institutions…

This paper looks at learner-formulated questions in technology-supported learning applications. Traditionally, technology-supported learning applications request input from the learner. The learner's response is used to assess the knowledge of the learner, to define a navigation path through the material or to construct a learner model. The…

Charter schools have grown in number over the last decade from a small number in just a few states to over 2,300 schools serving over 575,000 students in 34 states and the District of Columbia. This policy brief reviews research done on charter schools and summarizes key findings. Charter schools tend to be much smaller than district-operated…

This paper describes magnet schools as thematic islands of choice within a traditional district-assignment plan. These "islands of choice" are currently the most popular destination with those who exercise some choice in where they send their children to school. During the 1991-92 school year, 3,200 magnet schools were in operation, hosting some…

This book explores the reality of access to higher education for working class and ethnic minority adults through the reflections of 32 people in the United Kingdom on what held them back from higher education and what eventually motivated them to aim for university. Chapter 1 is "About the Research" and "Profiles of the…

This third revision of the Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) updates and modifies education program classifications, providing a taxonomic scheme that supports the accurate tracking, assessment, and reporting of field of study and program completions activity. This edition has also been adopted as the standard field of study taxonomy…

From 1998 to 2001, the number of community schools in Ohio increased from 15 to 92, and the number of students attending them increased tenfold. This preliminary evaluative report is limited to the first 15 community schools that opened during the 1998-99 school year. Findings are that these schools generally did not meet the Ohio Proficiency Test…

Problem-based learning (PBL) is an instructional strategy for preparing administrators whose basic unit of instruction is a project. Students are organized into teams and work on these projects to grapple with the problem and to achieve the learning objectives that are embedded in the project. In this PBL project, students design and prepare a…