State and local educators encountered both opportunities and obstacles in their first year of implementing the School Improvement Grants (SIGs) funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). In 2009, the ARRA, better known as the economic stimulus package, provided $3 billion for SIGs to help reform persistently low-achieving…

This brief introduces "Community Colleges Broadening Horizons through Service Learning," the American Association of Community Colleges' (AACC's) fifth national Learn and Serve America grant project and describes its grantee college programs. The goals of this grant project are to build on established foundations to integrate service…

This article considers the nature of complexity and design, as well as relationships between the two, and suggests that design may have much potential as an approach to improving human performance in situations seen as complex. It is developed against two backgrounds. The first is a world view that derives from second order cybernetics and radical…

The extent to which managers could accurately predict what items/activities their employees report as preferred was examined. First, managers were asked to rank order a list of items/activities they thought their employees would most prefer to be incorporated into a performance improvement plan. Next, employee preference for these same items was…

Few psychometrically valid scales exist to assess family outcomes and the helpfulness of early intervention. This article describes the development and psychometric properties of the Family Outcomes Survey-Revised. The revision was prompted by the need to (a) create a new format that would be easier for parents to understand, (b) revise and expand…

Recent increases in tuition levels, accelerated by declining state funding to institutions, have combined with stagnant or falling household incomes to make it more difficult for many college students to finance postsecondary education. In this environment, state grant programs are more important than ever. These funds have the potential to make…

Institutional policies and policy systems are vital to the well-being of institutions of higher education. While many institutions dedicate time and resources to the development of key policies, the establishment of a well-designed and well-functioning policy system is often neglected. We refer to the discrepancy between the importance of…

Not long ago, public education in Ontario, Canada, was in deep trouble. Student achievement was stagnating, labor disruptions were rampant, and public satisfaction with the schools was low. In 2003, a new provincial government initiated a series of reforms that embodied a positive, outcome-focused agenda for public education. Today, student…

Alberta Education is currently considering options for enhancing health and learning outcomes of students and is exploring opportunities to develop new wellness-related curriculum. This literature review is a component of this exploratory process that will inform curriculum development and was undertaken to: (1) provide a comprehensive review of…

Literacy has become much more than just the ability to read: recent literature related to literacy instruction suggests that an essential goal is to develop in students the ability to think deeply about what they read and to express themselves accurately and expressively in all contexts. There is a growing acceptance of the importance of lifelong…

Like never before, today's classroom teachers routinely are being asked to collaboratively analyze student data, develop or implement new mandated curricula, and assess the effectiveness of these innovations. Ironically, few preservice preparatory or in-service professional development programs actively train classroom instructors in the use of…

In 2002 the New Labour government launched the Academies programme (known initially as City Academies) with the target of 400, of which 200 are to opened by 2010. The espoused aim has been to tackle underachievement and encourage diversity of provision. However, it continues to be a controversial policy that is being driven by the Specialist…

In this article, we review research from the organizational sciences to develop lessons for educators and policy makers. The approach is an integrative review of the literature. We employ a comprehensive process to unpack and make sense of the turnaround literature from the organizational sciences. We rely on strategies appropriate for document…

There has been increased interest in retention and completion with regard to tertiary student outcomes in relation to students' successful completion of their study and what influences this. In New Zealand, the government through the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) has made it clear that it expects institutions to meet retention and completion…

In 2003, the California State University, Northridge (CSUN) undertook the challenge of becoming a learning-centered institution. In a 2005 article, the authors discussed how the learning-centered model at CSUN has renewed its previous, scattered efforts at student retention. In this article, the authors describe the transformation that occurred at…