Increasing research findings are pointing out that using positive psychology and wellness strategies in counseling and therapy are helpful in fostering healthy human development (Snyder & Lopez, 2001). Positive psychology is addressing the importance of positive emotions, character traits, and features of enabling institutions such as the 'good…

No one graduating from school can any longer have the illusion to have completed her or his learning career, nor to live in a monocultural society. Quite on the contrary, learning will be the major business of the professional future of anyone who now leaves school. Moreover, the multicultural nature of current societies constitutes an additional…

The Equity Scorecard, a nationally recognized and widely used organizational learning process designed to foster institutional change through the identification and elimination of racial disparities among college students, is described in this chapter. The effectiveness of this process and its potential impact are also discussed.

Rockville Centre is a diverse, suburban school district serving approximately 3,500 students. Since 1981, the school has offered the International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma. The IB diploma, which began in Rockville Centre as a gifted and talented program, is a comprehensive and challenging course of study in all subject areas. In this article,…

The black power movement helped redefine African Americans' identity and establish a new racial consciousness in the 1960s. As an influential political force, this movement in turn spawned the academic discipline known as Black Studies. Today there are more than a hundred Black Studies degree programs in the United States, many of them located in…

Community psychologists have a long-standing interest in promoting systems change to improve the lives of individuals and communities. To more fully illuminate a multilevel model of those factors involved in the promotion of systems change, the current study examined individual- and organizational-level characteristics related to health care…

Objective: Organizational learning, underpinned by evidence-based health care, and greater user involvement in planning and delivery were key objectives of the NHS Plan. Evaluation, and specifically participatory evaluation, offers the potential to address these elements of the NHS modernization agenda. We discuss the strengths and limitations of…

"Universal Design in Higher Education" looks at the design of physical and technological environments at institutions of higher education; at issues pertaining to curriculum and instruction; and at the full array of student services. "Universal Design in Higher Education" is a comprehensive guide for researchers and…

This practicum targeted a multi-service child and youth care agency in which lesbian women and gay men were implicitly excluded from serving as therapeutic foster parents. The setting in which the practicum project was developed, implemented, and evaluated is a not-for-profit, provincially chartered, and publicly-funded organization, headquartered…

Thirteen school districts, a regional training network, and a university in Florida formed a partnership to develop support for the implementation of the statewide plan, "Blueprint 2000." Funded by the Florida Department of Education, the partnership used a quality and systems framework for helping the schools and districts in their restructuring…

A fundamental challenge facing community college presidents and senior-level staff is to create an environment in which diverse qualities of students and staff make positive contributions to the organization. This requires replacing conceptions of leadership as one person at the top who has power with a vision of democratic leadership which…

Based on the assertion that community colleges are moving from the community-based paradigm of the past 30 years to a new paradigm combining the forces of learner- and community-based education, this book explores the role of leadership in changing the mission and culture of the colleges. Chapter 1 describes differences between the older top-down…

This paper presents a vision for a new unified arrangement for schools and teacher education programs in which pre-kindergarten through grade-12 schools and the professional development of teachers are intertwined to create learning communities. This vision's three basic and necessary characteristics are: (1) the direct participation of many more…

This paper sets out an agenda for higher education that will create a society in which lifetime learning is encouraged, valued, and rewarded. The paper presents five key issues that must be defined in order to achieve these goals: (1) the role of higher education; (2) the role of public policy; (3) how resources and intellectual property are to be…

This study examined major issues of restructuring and cost containment confronting graduate/research universities and the application of strategic planning to these issues. The study obtained data from a survey of administrators at 35 selected "Research I Universities" and site visits to six public and four independent universities at…