This document is intended to help communities plan and implement initiatives modeled after Making Academics Count, a campaign that was launched in 1997 by the Business Coalition for Education Reform (BCER) to encourage employers to ask job applicants for their school records and thereby help motivate students to achieve at higher levels. The guide…

Teaching is a very difficult field to master, and the challenges faced by beginning career and technical education (CTE) teachers are especially great. Teacher induction, which usually takes 5-6 years, is the total of all the teacher's experiences from the moment the first teaching contract is signed until the teacher is comfortably established as…

This document explains how to establish study circles for public dialogue and community problem solving with the aim of building strong neighborhoods. The foreword explains the value of study circles in addressing the challenges currently facing all kinds of neighborhoods and presents 10 specific guidelines for organizing study circles in a…

This book explains how individuals can contract their way to jobs or careers in the 21st century workplace. The following are among the topics discussed: (1) how the workplace has changed (looking for work instead of a job; hidden employment opportunities; reasons contracting makes sense; making it easier to get hired; the need for…

Properly conceived and implemented new initiatives are essential to improving schools and communities. Such new initiatives usually are pursued as projects, pilots, or demonstrations, with temporary funding and staffing. When the funding ends, more often than not much of what has been developed disappears. Sometimes this is appropriate (e.g., when…

This guide, which is an updated version of the guide created for the Groundhog Job Shadow Day (GJSD) that was held on February 2, 1999, provides structured activities that classroom teachers and job sites can use to help students understand the importance and relevance of their education and see firsthand the range of knowledge, skills, and…

This document explains how to conduct a successful job search. The following items are included: (1) an outline of a self-assessment process to help jobseekers identify their needs, interests, and skills; (2) a discussion of strategies for locating job openings; (3) information on the job application process (guidelines for applying for jobs in…

This guidebook summarizes learning on the role of intermediaries and how to build organizations that perform intermediary functions effectively and efficiently. An introduction defines intermediaries, in the context of youth-serving systems, as staffed organizations that connect schools and other youth-preparation organizations with workplaces and…

This paper presents background information on "why" some students may not be responsive to the traditional lecture/discussion classroom format. It offers a model, based on a "high-tech," state-of-the-art classroom facility, for revitalizing lectures. The author recounts her own classroom experiences as she attempted to integrate technology into…

The massage therapy profession is currently engaged in a competency-based education movement that includes an emphasis on promoting massage therapy research competencies (MTRCs). A systems-based model for integrating MTRCs into massage therapy education was therefore proposed. The model and an accompanying checklist describe an approach to…

This document is intended to guide further education colleges and work-based learning providers through some of the commonly used tools, techniques, and theories of quality management. The following are among the topics discussed: (1) various ways of defining quality; methods used by organizations to achieve quality (quality control, quality…

This document is intended to help local adult education programs evaluate their programs to assess their capability of designing and delivering a specific workplace education program requested by an employer. The guide begins with an introductory section that discusses the following topics: differences between workplace programs and typical…

This document presents a training module designed to help adult literacy program providers in New York and elsewhere to use the principles of social marketing to improve recruitment and retention in adult education programming. Literacy program providers are taught to view the social marketing process as a process of exchange between themselves as…

This document, which is intended to assist aspiring entrepreneurs wishing to establish a microenterprise, describes the federal programs that are available to assist entrepreneurs. The introduction provides an overview of the Interagency Workgroup on Microenterprise Development, which was formed by seven federal agencies to encourage continued…

Recruitment and selection practices in the private sector were examined through a literature review to identify strategies that human resource (HR) departments can use in designing new employee recruitment and selection processes or improving existing processes. The following were among the findings: (1) new employees recruited by using informal…