Pursuant to section 22.30.7-109(1)(a) and (d) C.R.S., Online Programs are required to submit an annual report to the Unit of Online Learning within the Colorado Department of Education (CDE). As per the "CDE Rules for the Administration, Certification and Oversight of Colorado's Online Programs", individual program reports were submitted…

Secretary of Education, Duncan, proclaimed to a group of teachers in Colorado that if students were to be more competitive with those from other countries, in particular, China and India, they needed to be in school six days a week for at least 11 months a year (Associated Press, 2009). Although longer school days, weeks and years are not…

This paper attempts to compare the availability, quality, similarities and differences in student support services offered by the Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) Pakistan and The Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL). It also aims to identify and report the deficiencies that students of both the institutions face in the student support services.…

In January 2009, in the last week of the Bush Administration, the U.S. Department of Education (ED), upon orders from the departing political appointee staff, published the final report in a long running National Evaluation of Upward Bound (UB). The study was conducted by the contractor, Mathematica Policy Research. After more than a year in…

The latest installment of the Fordham Institute's "Creating Sound Policy for Digital Learning" series investigates one of the more controversial aspects of digital learning: How much does it cost? In this paper, the Parthenon Group uses interviews with more than fifty vendors and online-schooling experts to estimate today's average…

Will the digital-learning movement repeat the mistakes of the charter-school movement? How much more successful might today's charter universe look if yesterday's proponents had focused on the policies and practices needed to ensure its quality, freedom, and resources over the long term? What mistakes might have been avoided? Damaging scandals…

This investigation examined the course experiences of Bachelor of Education Primary students across each year of the course. The aims of the study were to identify gaps in what we know about our students; to identify relevant domains in student experiences and to assist with course improvements. A reflective inquiry paradigm was adopted for…

An increasing number of higher educational institutes are offering remedial, bridging, preparatory or transitional courses in a blended and online format to remediate and enhance students' knowledge and skills. This article addresses how teachers and institutes design and implement these courses. The descriptions of transitional courses were…

The academic and social integration of first-generation college students into institutions of higher education continues to be a topic of concern for university administrators, faculty, and staff. Students enter college with different background traits and experiences as well as have different college experiences that can either permit or prohibit…

Over the past three and one-half decades, ACT has dedicated itself to conducting research that collects information from colleges and universities that will help them identify and better understand the impact of various practices on college student retention and persistence to degree-completion. Conducted in the spring of 2009, ACT's most recent…

There are many challenges involved in developing and running Writing Centres in tertiary contexts in South Africa. These challenges include recognizing the role Writing Centres need to play in the redress of basic academic literacies. They also involve emphasizing writing as a mode of learning where higher cognitive functions such as analysis and…

One of the greatest challenges that community colleges face in their efforts to increase graduation rates is improving the success of students in their developmental, or remedial, education programs--the courses that students without adequate academic preparation must take before they can enroll in courses for college credit. Emphasizing results…

College completion remains one of the most compelling and vexing policy issues in higher education today. Although access to higher education has increased substantially over the past three decades, student success in college as measured by degree completion has not improved significantly. There is a great disparity in the percentage of low-income…

The objectives of this research were to identify: 1) promising institutional practices for retaining and graduating low-income, first-generation community college transfer students at four-year institutions, including any transfer-specific support systems; 2) outcomes of transfer students (i.e., graduation rates) at four-year institutions in…

This chapter presents an overview of a new tiered mentoring program (TMP) operating at Bellevue Community College in Washington. The program links students with peers, faculty, staff, and administrators via a tiered structure whereby first-year students are mentored by upper-level students, who in turn are mentored by professionals in the…