The purpose of this paper is to inform the community about teacher appraisal methods in the School District of Philadelphia, outline the difficulties of the current system, and suggest approaches that would strengthen the teacher appraisal process. The authors gathered their information over three months in mid-2009 from multiple sources:…

In the past three years, Board of Governors' (BOG) staff, working in cooperation with university representatives, have continued to improve the data collection and reporting capabilities for the State University System. Simultaneously, Board staff have worked to lessen the reporting burden on the universities by reducing the number of data…

Environmental interpretation is a key tool for integrated management of tourism, with potential for greater use in managing visitor numbers, behavior and impacts, and enhancing experience. Evaluation is necessary to determine whether interpretation is achieving its goals. It is vital for park managers to know if their management is effective in…

The amount of online information has grown exponentially over the past few decades, and users become more and more dependent on ranking and recommendation systems to address their information seeking needs. The advance in information technologies has enabled users to provide feedback on the utilities of the underlying ranking and recommendation…

Improving teacher preparation for successful teaching in at-risk schools will help at-risk schools and districts by doing the following: (1) Create stability and growth by retaining teachers; (2) Address the equitable distribution of highly qualified teachers; (3) Break the cycle of outdated teaching methods and low expectations; and (4) Raise…

The Bright Futures Scholarship (BFS), Florida's lottery-funded, merit-based scholarship program, has been a source of both praise and criticism since its 1997 inception. Proponents of the scholarship assert the program has achieved the desired goals of making college more affordable for state residents and encouraging the brightest students to…

The provision of diversified research training is regarded as one of the most significant contributions made by the Australian Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) programme [Howard Partners 2003, Evaluation of the cooperative research centres programme, Department of Education, Science and Training, Canberra, ACT]. Yet, a systematic evaluation of…

Understanding how to assess and improve what happens within out-of-school-time (OST) programs is a critical challenge facing the field. This article explores key developments related to the issue of quality in the OST field during the past several years and then looks ahead at opportunities for future progress. From a practice perspective, one of…

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) has set out to expand existing partnerships and form new alliances in order to take on the most pervasive challenges of our time: improving the health and well-being of everyone in America. It has formalized its commitment by bringing together its work under the thematic efforts of "Healthy Children,…

Strategic plans and performance objectives define the results to be accomplished, but selecting a suitable set of performance technologies for your organizations requires more than just knowing the intended benefits. The systematic procedures described in the article will guide you through practical processes and valuable tools for identifying…

This descriptive analysis updates an earlier study of California's Title I school districts in program improvement (July 2008 "Characteristics of California School Districts in Program Improvement. Issues & Answers"), which was based on performance data for 2005/06, with another year of data. By 2006/07 more school districts were in…

This descriptive analysis provides a statistical profile of California's Title I school districts in program improvement. As an independent analysis of these districts in the aggregate, it is intended to inform the context for district improvement as California rolls out and refines its district intervention strategies. A key finding of this study…

Coaching is a dynamic field in which many forms of health promotion occur directly and indirectly on a daily basis. It would therefore be of interest to determine the extent to which research-based data has been collected pertaining to health promotion and its influence throughout coaching. Thus, the purpose of this study was to inductively…

This article describes how seven schools in England improved their science provision by focusing on the professional development of their science technicians. In September 2013, the Gatsby Charitable Foundation funded the National Science Learning Centre to lead a project connecting secondary schools with experienced senior science technicians…

Adrianna Kezar recently sat down with Chancellor Tim White of the California State University system to discuss, among many other things, the newly released California State Graduation Initiative and what it will take to enact it. The key commitments of the initiative are: (1) hire more tenure-track faculty; (2) develop engaged advising; (3) solve…