Signs of a leadership crisis in community colleges have been building over the past decade, with one study predicting that as many as 84 percent of current presidents could retire within the next 10 years. Several plans of action are under way to handle this changing of the guard, including more leadership-preparation programs offered by such…

The 2009 Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) National Policy Seminar (NPS) was one of the most energetic and highly attended advocacy meetings in ACTE's history. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, congressional staffers and policy experts gave insightful presentations during the three-day event held in Arlington, Virginia. Stanley…

The leadership of any organization is responsible for setting and communicating a mission, an inspiring vision and a set of core values. The leadership is also responsible for establishing a management system to achieve the missions and vision while adhering to core values. Many organizations do an excellent job of creating the mission, vision and…

Electronic communication technologies continue to change the landscape of reference services. For many users, virtual communication is the preferred means of conversing. Synchronous virtual reference, similar to other synchronous means of communication, is an important method for reaching students and for providing teaching and learning…

In response to external pressure for change, the subject university engaged in major restructuring activities during the mid to late 1990's. As predicted by organizational theory, faculty reacted to the restructuring in order to define the conditions and methods of their work and to legitimate their professional autonomy. Although this university…

U.S. educators and policymakers are concerned about the poor performance of the public schools, particularly schools that serve students from low-income families. Although education is primarily a state function, the federal government also has a longstanding interest in improving education for disadvantaged students, and it targets funding to…

It is estimated that approximately 3 million students are enrolled as international students, and it is possible to project that this number may reach more than 7 million by 2025. As global demand exceeds the supply, competition is building for the best of these students. Some countries (or regions) clearly envisage the opportunity this represents…

For most of the past decade the policy debate over improving U.S. public education has centered on teacher quality. In this debate, teachers and their unions have often been seen as the problem, not part of the solution. Further, current discourse often assumes that conflicting interests between teacher unions and administration is inevitable.…

Through special funding by the Ministry of Education and Science in 2008, the Research Institute for Higher Education (RIHE) at Hiroshima University has been able to implement a new research project on the reform of higher education in the knowledge-based society of the 21st century. RIHE hosted the third International Workshop on the Higher…

As state policymakers strive to ensure that every student is taught by an effective teacher and is ready for college and 21st-century careers, they must also make drastic budget cuts. States cannot do more with less without collecting and using quality data to determine which programs and policies increase student achievement and the state's…

Expanding economic opportunity in Texas depends on our state's ability to increase the college graduation rate for the thousands of college freshmen arriving on campuses each year. The pending budget bills would hamper college access for thousands of Texans through severe cuts to successful financial aid programs, including TEXAS Grants (Towards…

The ongoing dilemma for those expected to improve schools is how to meet our society's basic aims for public education in ways that level the playing field. The dilemma is exacerbated by the need to do more with less. This brief approaches these matters in the context of three direct functions that are essential to school improvement: (1)…

Mr. Smith and Ms. D'Amico are two veteran science teachers in a well-performing school district. Both teachers use weekly lab exercises and experiments as formative assessments. In their middle school classrooms, children are engaged and eager to learn. As students walk into Mr. Smith's classroom, a prescribed, step-by-step procedure of the day's…

The transition from 2nd to 3rd grade has received little notice in education research--yet the authors' experience in elementary school counseling convinced them that most students undergo a seismic shift during this period. Third grade is not only the first year students will encounter standardized end-of-grade tests, but also a year in which…

The aim of this article is to compare the schooling levels of individuals with the demands of the Brazilian labour market. The results demonstrate the high probability of compatibility between occupation and schooling levels. But high propensities for under-education were identified associated with the skin colour and position in the family. The…