Of the many opportunities available upon graduating, most turfgrass management/turfgrass science students seek assistant golf course superintendent positions. By tradition, faculty are responsible for preparing graduates to serve as capable assistant superintendents. Moreover, faculty are queried for guidance on how to best compete for these…

Child Care Resource and Referral agencies (CCR&Rs) are one of the major vehicles in the United States for providing training to child care providers. The quality of care children receive in child care settings is due, in large part, to the effectiveness of the training child care providers receive from CCR&Rs and other community…

Using data from Achieving the Dream: Community College Count, this issue of "Data Notes" is the first of a two-part series investigating the characteristics of late stop-outs--students who accumulate at least 30 credits within the first two years, only to stop out without completing credentials or transferring. Seventy-five percent of…

Several national trends are converging to impact adult education today. First, the increasing presence of adults in higher education is accentuated by the expansive Baby Boom generation who are demanding greater access to the higher education system in the United States. Second, regarding workforce and economic development in the 21st century,…

Mounting pressure in the policy arena to improve teacher productivity either by improving signals that predict teacher performance or through creating incentive contracts based on performance--has spurred two related questions: Are there important determinants of teacher productivity that are not captured by teacher credentials but that can be…

The Academy for Educational Development (AED) sent a research team to the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) on October 23-24, 2008, to conduct interviews with individuals who play important roles in the university's teacher preparation program. These interviews, along with additional documentation provided by UNCG and identified by…

This reference volume shows the educational certificates, diplomas and degrees and required documentation for various levels of higher education study in nations around the world other than the United States. Organized first by country with the countries listed alphabetically, the information is presented in columns with the first column listing…

Focusing on Child Development Associates (CDAs), this third national CDA report examines whether CDAs have benefited from the increased activity at the federal, state, and local levels to enhance the status of child care providers. The following questions were asked: (1) What changes or consistencies are there among CDAs?; (2) What has been the…

Certification of professional counselors is presently viewed in two realms, that of state regulation and of national voluntary credentialing. This digest considers national voluntary certification. The first national certification began in 1972; in 1983 the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) began certification for general practice…

This paper reviews the history of the Child Development Associate (CDA) credential, created in 1972 to meet the growing need for skilled child care workers to provide quality programs for young children in the United States. A pilot program was launched in 1974, leading to the granting of CDA credentials in 1975. Since 1976 over 60,000 CDA…

"Taking the Lead: Investing in Early Childhood Leadership for the 21st Century" is an initiative to support quality in early childhood programs by promoting director credentialing and leadership development in the early care and education field. In developing its two initiatives, "Experiments in Director Credentialing" and…

California Assembly Bill 1725 repealed the credentials used to determine the subject areas that community college faculty could teach and mandated the development of a list of disciplines. This two-part paper describes policies of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC) with respect to assigning courses and proposing changes…

Continuing medical education is entering a new era. What has been casual and emergent will incresingly be directly related to the professional affairs of the individual practitioners. The medical profession will find itself drawn progressively into the continuing educational activities of other allied health professions. The author discusses…

One requisite of a profession is that its practitioners hold a credential certifying that the individual is competent to provide needed services. In the fields of health, physical education, recreation, and dance, diverse groups compete in credentialing practitioners. The four papers in this collection discuss who is, or should be, responsible for…

As more public money is spent on educational reform, the issue of school accountability arises more often. California high schools have traditionally participated in an external validation process to gain accreditation from the regional commission, the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). Schools that receive compensatory funding…