The effects of the Great Recession of 2007-2009 continue to challenge school business officials (SBOs) and other education leaders as they strive to prepare students for the global workforce. Economists have borrowed a word from chemistry to describe this state of affairs: hysteresis--the lingering effects of the past on the present. Today's SBOs…

This white paper by ICF International's Caitlin Howley discusses commonalities and differences among various understandings of readiness and highlights conceptualizations of readiness for change in selected change models. How leaders can use such theories to best to prepare their organizations--and the people enlivening them--for new ways of…

Music teachers often change jobs several times during their careers. Reasons for job changes vary, but regardless, these changes bring a different set of challenges. Sharing knowledge and learning are part and parcel of collaboration. So what if, as education professionals, music teachers decided to collaborate during job migrations? For all music…

Recruitment is an expensive business: In 2010-2011, the median cost to recruit an undergraduate was $2,185 among private colleges and universities, according to Noel-Levitz, an enrollment management consultancy. In these tough fiscal times, admissions departments are under pressure to keep those costs down even as they pursue higher enrollment and…

School librarians should strive to create a learning environment that prepares their students for higher level thinking. They should not only memorize and remember, but also synthesize and evaluate their learning. This can be achieved through social literacy. By utilizing a collaborative lesson that has students teaching other students, school…

School librarians have always been teachers, even before the term "teacher-librarian" was coined. They teach every time they help students select books, locate and evaluate resources for research projects, or troubleshoot a computer problem. When they assist students, they explain and model the steps they are taking. Teaching for school librarians…

Jim Garrison's article (Garrison 2012) critiques current reforms in the United States for fostering a harmful "standardization" in schooling, which threatens to further undermine the country's democratic heritage and to prepare many students for servitude in an oppressive social order. John Dewey is cited throughout, as befits Professor…

What does performance improvement look like in practice in today's organizations? As part of its commitment to the learning profession, the American Society for Training and Development annually judges the practices of organizations through a blind peer review process to determine what merits the best practice designation. This article contains…

"Training" magazine taps 2012 Training Top 125 winners and Top 10 Hall of Famers to provide their learning and development best practices in each issue. In this article, Jamie Leitch (American Infrastructure) and Mary Beth Alexander (The Economical Insurance Group) share strategies for tuition reimbursement and professional designations.

Most administrators in higher education get to leadership positions by traveling paths that do not have anything to do with philanthropy and development. Having worked their way up through the academy, institutional leaders do not always have a frame of reference for understanding the nuances of development. In this article, the author discusses…

It often seems as though many fundraisers are allergic to the concept of measurable performance goals and accountability for development officers. However, goals are critical for individuals and organizations; without them, success can neither be defined nor understood. This article describes how one development shop improved accountability and…

The purpose of this study was to explain the process and implementation of an outcomes-based general education program at a public, doctoral/research-extensive institution from the perspective of faculty. The theory that emerged explains how different causal, intervening, and contextual conditions interact with and affect the phenomenon of general…

This article provides the reader with information regarding forming a community emergency response team (CERT) at a community college. College public safety departments are efficient entities in ordinary times. However, recent events at community colleges across the country have shown that there have been situations where their capabilities have…

When officials at tuition-driven Fisk University raised the veil of secrecy a few years ago surrounding the university's financial condition, the details they laid out were less than encouraging. The Nashville-based university, home of the historic Jubilee Singers, was losing several million dollars a year and had not received any major private…

Being a college CIO these days must feel a bit like juggling chain saws with one hand while holding a donation cup in the other. It's unlikely to end well, yet it represents the new normal in IT. While campus clients--from administrators to faculty and students--expect the usual raft of tech services, the IT budget simply can't deliver. In this…