This report summarizes evaluation results from AISD's Austin Collaborative for Mathematics Education (ACME) and campus support initiative during school year 2000-2001.

The impact of student financial aid policies, programs, and procedures on private college enrollment patterns is discussed. Because state subsidies to public institutions create a two-tiered pricing structure in higher education, independent institutions depend on those programs and policies that encourage college choice rather than access.…

Research findings regarding the impact of financial aid on the academic lives of college students, their grades, their academic loads, and their persistence are summarized. The five areas of financial aid studied are parental support, scholarships and grants, loans, work, and aid packages. (Author/JMD)

The costs and benefits of investing in new, multimedia technology for teaching languages are examined, looking at one recent grant-based Australian project for instructional development in German on CD-ROM. Limitations are discussed, including limited expertise, labor and equipment costs, need for flexible delivery, and cost-effectiveness of…

The American Association of School Librarians developed ICONnect to provide Internet training to students, library media specialists, and teachers. Components include gopher and Internet sites; online courses; Internet curriculum connections and listservs; grant opportunities; and KidsConnect, a question-answering service for kids. Students…

Case study of a poor, rural Pennsylvania school district's experience with the Reading First initiative illustrates how the No Child Left Behind Act confines districts to a few federally prescribed, "scientifically proven" curricula that ignore local conditions. Sanctioned schools are negatively labeled but receive inadequate funding,…

The theme of these six articles is the recruitment of minority and nontraditional students into vocational education. It includes success stories regarding schools recruiting Black and Hispanic youth; methods for teaching nontraditional students; a discussion of the history of the land grant university program; magnet schools; cooperative…

Describes a space education center that was developed in a Utah elementary school as a spacecraft simulator. Highlights include funding methods; business and community participation; student programs, including field trip opportunities for other schools; and the use of technology, including videodisc, videotapes, computers, telephone systems, and…

This study surveyed 228 students at 4 institutions of higher education in South Wales about their educational debt, finances, employment, and reason for pursuing higher education. It found that although 69% of them had not taken out loans, nearly a third of those who had taken out loans had debt levels above 1,000 pounds. (MDM)

A study of stress among 786 faculty at a land-grant university found differences in stress levels among discipline groups and higher stress reported by women than by men. The findings are discussed, and several proposals are made for individual faculty members, department heads, and academic administrators for addressing the problems of workplace…

Describes the four major phases of a science project to create a school-site native plant habitat: (1) planning the habitat area; (2) constructing the habitat; (3) writing the related curriculum; and (4) providing inservice programs to other interested science teachers. (MDH)

Describes two initiatives of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) to help children become life-long readers. The AFT/Chrysler Learning Connection Reading Grants program awards grants to schools for family involvement reading programs. The booklet "Helping Your Child Learn to Read" contains activities parents can use. Some booklet…

Describes three programs funded by the Toyota Appreciation Program for Excellence to Science Teachers Reaching Youth (TAPESTRY) program: (1) High School Hawk Watch promotes wildlife awareness student research; (2) Science without Bounds makes science accessible to at-risk and minority students; and (3) Kansas Environmental Monitoring Network…

Describes the development of the grant-funded Oregon School Library Information System (OSLIS), a project design to provide cost-effective access to online resources in school libraries across the state. Notes that online database provides offer substantial discounts for group acquisition of their products which has prompted the development of…

An analysis and assessment of the Course Redesign Project, which used technology to improve student learning and course satisfaction in large lecture courses at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Six disciplinary-diverse departments participated in the project. Technology was selected for the purpose of introducing active learning into…