Frequently, educational institutions seeking to implement Total Quality Management (TQM) as a means to improve institutional effectiveness, overemphasize training in the application of TQM tools and fail to fully address human needs and concerns, such as the critical issue of employee empowerment. Four principal barriers exist to adequately…

This study was conducted to identify the ways that superintendents in rural school districts deal successfully with restructuring. The analysis is based on interviews with superintendents and principals in four rural districts. The districts, in Texas and Oklahoma, were selected especially for their successful restructuring programs. The two Texas…

This book defines the changes that will be needed in Great Britain's higher educational system to make the shift to greater rates of participation in the future, and speculates about the conditions under which they could occur, or are already doing so. Part I has as its focus the processes of selection for, or exclusion from, higher education.…

The directors of adult education from the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the territories met to discuss implementation of the National Literacy Act and Adult Education Act (AEA) and to begin the process of developing recommendations regarding reauthorization of AEA in 1995. The forum discussions centered around the following aspects of…

The Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) and the Center on Education and Training for Employment (CETE) at Ohio State University worked with six schools (two comprehensive high schools, two high schools served by an area vocational center, an area vocational center, and a junior high school) in the SREB region to keep potential dropouts in…

The Listening Partners project examined rural mothers' development of a sense of the power of their own minds and voices and the relationship between this sense of power and mothers' parenting strategies and their children's development. Two cohorts of 60 women from a rural, impoverished region of Vermont participated in the program. Half the…

This advisory report investigates the possible simplification of the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) and considers the issue of federal direct lending. The evaluation indicates that complexity in the FFELP is due to multiple, overlapping loan programs with conflicting terms and conditions. Nonstandard policies, procedures, forms, and…

This book aims to provide practical information and insights to practitioners involved in collaborative international development programs. It draws on literature and the authors' many years of field experience to combine theory and practical tools as a guide to action in the field. The introduction defines concepts in rural development, outlines…

The difficulty students have in transferring what they have learned to "real life" situations is emerging as a major problem. This action research project examined the impact of an intervention to improve transfer of learning by means of student journals and projects, and graphic organizers. Participating in this research were 68…

The Rural Community College Initiative (RCCI) collaborates with community colleges in rural communities that are racially, ethnically, culturally, and economically diverse by challenging them to think broadly about their potential as catalysts for regional development. RCCI is a national demonstration program that combines the goals of rural…

The materials in this curriculum sample are written as an English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) lesson for immigrants and refugees, designed to begin discussion of family violence. An introductory section outlines issues related to discussion of family violence in the classroom setting, including the importance of opening lines of communication and…

This report describes a project designed to decrease the number of missing, incomplete, and late assignments of seventh-grade students in a middle school science class. The students attended a small parochial school in a suburb of a large midwestern city. The students' problems with organization were documented through anecdotal records; surveys…

Noting that a majority of adults believe something is fundamentally wrong with America's current moral climate, this booklet presents a framework for discussing the issue of troubled youths. The booklet presents three approaches, or choices, for addressing the problem: greater parental focus on children's needs; social partnerships in…

This paper presents five standards for pedagogy that are applicable across grade levels, student populations, and content areas: joint productive activity; language and literacy development; meaning making; complex thinking; and instructional conversation. These standards emerge from principles and practice that have proven successful with…

This report presents ten recommendations for the radical reconstruction of undergraduate education at research universities in the United States offered by a national commission. Background information is provided in the first three chapters. An overview notes that undergraduates at research universities too often have been shortchanged and that a…