To lure highly qualified teachers to low-performing schools, the Mobile County, Alabama, school board did what a small but growing number of districts are considering: pay teachers more money for working in what are considered less attractive jobs. As school districts are more pressured to raise achievement among all student groups, more are…

In the present climate of public accountability, there is increasing demand to show "what works" and what return is gained for the public from investments to improve communities. This increasing demand for accountability is being met with growing confidence in the field of philanthropy during the past 10 years that the impact or effectiveness of…

This study assessed the policies, strategic plans and structures that have been put in place in Zimbabwe to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the education sector. It also examined the comprehensiveness of projects and programmes currently being implemented by the government in collaboration with partner organisations and NGOs. The findings show…

The strategy for conversion to electronic cataloguing of western manuscripts in the Bodleian Library has been to a large extent determined by circumstances--the size and variety of the manuscript collections, the existence of detailed published catalogues for the earlier collections, the availability of funds for specific purposes, and, above all,…

In recent years the scope and application of intellectual property rights has been expanded remarkably in the area of medical research and development. This has strengthened the role of the private sector in developing and producing new medicinal drugs. However, medical research is usually close to a pure public good and thus not efficiently…

The present study sought to add to our knowledge about forces that negatively affect an individual's decision to start a business by identifying barriers they encounter. By identifying barriers to starting a business, we stand to learn much about how an individual identifies, confronts, and responds to decisions which may seem to be beyond their…

The first full-service school in Evansville, Indiana, began at Cedar Hall Elementary School in the mid-1990s. In the planning phase of the Cedar Hall pilot, a number of community-based organizations, businesses, parents, and churches were invited to come together to develop a full-service school framework. In 2000, a district council was…

Using data from a social survey of PhD students in two major Australian universities supplemented by student interviews, this article reports on the financial support, course experience and career plans of international PhD students. While most international PhD students hold scholarships which include stipends, a minority of students experience…

Sociologists have a bad reputation, mostly deserved. Sociologists tell people things they already know in words that they can't understand. But among sociologists' useful ideas is the conception of society as a system of interdependent parts. This conception suggests that what happens in one subsystem of American society influences what happens in…

This Canadian study reports on the experiences of parents whose children use cochlear implants and on their perspectives prior to and following the transition to Auditory-Verbal therapy. A qualitative case study design, framed in social-ecological theory, guided this research. Data collection procedures included a family information questionnaire,…

The author of this article talks to Robert Kreider about why helping people with special needs is so important to him and his colleagues. Robert Kreider is the president and chief executive officer of The Devereux Foundation, the nation's largest non-profit provider of behavioral healthcare services to children and adults with emotional,…

Teachers may be the most important element of an effective school, but does that mean that K-12 improvement must wait on the ability of schools or systems to recruit, nurture, and retain outstanding teachers? Such a strategy implies that widespread excellence hinges on the ability of publicly funded school systems to attract more than 3.3 million…

This report examines access to higher education in underserved regions of Michigan. This study focuses on specific concerns about postsecondary education access in three geographically diverse areas of the state: suburban Macomb County; the city of Saginaw; and six rural counties in the northeastern Lower Peninsula. The report provides a summary…

Parent involvement in New Mexico, and around the nation, is an essential element in the success of students and their schools. This simple point anchors the federal law known as the "No Child Left Behind Act of 2001" ("NCLB"). NCLB establishes state, district and school requirements designed to promote more effective parent…

In the fall of 2007, Education Resource Strategies (ERS) was invited by Philadelphia's School Reform Commission to conduct a Strategic Professional Development Review for the School District of Philadelphia (SDP). ERS is a nonprofit organization that is nationally recognized for its extensive work in partnering with urban school districts to make…