This article describes Getting to Outcomes (GTO), a 10-step framework for accountability designed to facilitate effective implementation of evidence-based programs and improvement of home-grown practices (Getting to Outcomes and GTO are trademarks registered by the University of South Carolina and RAND; Wandersman, Imm, Chinman, & Kaftarian,…

An analysis of educational programs in the Urals region of Russia shows how institutions may cooperate more by sharing programs and by specializing in those programs in which they are strongest. While competition is a necessary mechanism for improvements in educational quality, overlapping and redundant programs need to be avoided. (Contains 1…

The fishbone diagram developed by Mariano Bernardez (2009a, 2009b) in the introductory article to this issue of "Performance Improvement Quarterly" depicts the origins and interrelationships of the models and approaches of many fields and researchers that have contributed to human performance technology (HPT) as it is used today. We can…

Almost two years into the federal Race to the Top program, states are spending their shares of the $4 billion prize at a snail's pace--a reflection of the challenges the 12 winners face as they try to get ambitious education improvement plans off the ground. Through the end of March, the 11 states and the District of Columbia had spent just 14…

International indicators show that Finland has one of the most educated citizenries in the world, provides educational opportunities in an egalitarian manner, and makes efficient use of resources. But at the beginning of the 1990s, education in Finland was nothing special in international terms. The performance of Finnish students on international…

The 2012 MetLife Foundation-NASSP Breakthrough Schools are outstanding examples of how determined and focused leaders create and sustain school improvement. The schools are places of strategic decision making where dedicated adults demonstrate their conviction that every student can and will achieve. Each of the schools demonstrates the efficacy…

A task force discovered that the guidance and counseling program in the Boston Public Schools is designed to be preventive and developmental and that the program is goal-directed to assist students in the development of life skills at each level. However, over the past several years the guidance program has been driven by the budget which has…

The rapid changes occurring in society requires continuous development and growth in rehabilitation programs so that the needs of handicapped individuals to live in their communities can be met. Program changes are influenced by staff and client mobility, mobility in funding, public demand for accountability, and identity perceptions. (EC)

An assistant professor of education and preschool director implemented a practicum intervention designed to increase the range of child care services provided in a Christian college's preschool laboratory. The primary goal of the intervention was to provide a high quality day care program which met the physical, cognitive, and emotional needs of…

Derived from a study by Whitebook and others (1982), this ERIC Short Report presents findings, recommendations, and other information on staff burnout in child care settings. Child care staff were found to be underpaid and overworked. Differences in working conditions among centers and job satisfaction among staff appeared to be related to such…

There has been a growing but begrudging recognition that better teacher education is necessary both to carry out other education-related reforms and to provide knowledge for shaping the reform agenda. Without fundamental changes in the ways that teachers teach, changes will not occur in the learning outcomes of a particular lesson or class or…

The National Union Catalog (NUC) resulted from years of planning by librarians. Its history includes: (1) establishment of exchange agreements in 1909 with continuous increase in size resulting from donations and appropriations; (2) availability in book catalog form in 1946; (3) publication of titles of 1956 and later imprints, useful in…

The author, who is Executive Director of the National Association for Mental Health, remarked in this article about the rights of members to know the progress being made in the field of mental health. (Editor/RK)