Utah's K-3 Reading Improvement Program provides state matching funds to help districts and charter schools achieve the state's goal of having third graders read at or above grade level. All 40 Utah school districts took part in both Year 1 (2004/05) and Year 2 (2005/06) of the program, and the number of participating charter schools increased in…

"Caring School Community"[TM] ("CSC") is a modified version of a program formerly known as the "Child Development Project" ("CDP"). The "CSC" program has been recently revised to eliminate some elements of the "CDP" that were shown in evaluation studies to be inconsistently or poorly…

African American adolescents disproportionately perform poorly compared to peers in both behavioral and academic aspects of their educational experience. In this study, African American male students participated in an after-school program involving tutoring, group counseling, and various enrichment activities. All students were assessed regarding…

This book offers an integrated framework for achieving competitive advantage by managing organizations, processes, and jobs effectively. Chapter 1 explores the forces driving the needs to be more competitive. Chapter 2 contrasts the traditional functional view of the organization with the systems view. Chapter 3 introduces the three levels of…

The study described here examined the professional communities of teachers in American high schools. Data were derived from a series of observations and interviews undertaken over a 3-year period in six high schools in Michigan. Based on these data, the study developed a working definition of the term "professional community," described…

A selected annotated bibliography on managing development projects, intended for rural development practitioners, highlights items that outline some pressing issues and concerns confronting those involved in rural development in general and rural project management in particular. A section of annotated entries lists 21 publications on project…

In 1981-82, over 4,500 staff members and parents of the Detroit Public Schools participated in the inservice education programs funded through the Federally Assisted Staff Training (FAST) Project. These activities were carried out in over 140 workshops to provide training for the academic improvement of Title I target students. The following…

This article offers guidelines for understanding Title VI Grants from the Office of Education and for making grant proposals. (AM)

Establishing partnerships between institutions of higher education (IHEs) and local education agencies (LEAs) is a common recommendation in the many state and national reports advocating the reform of education. The rationale for such partnerships is that collaboration can assist LEAs in their efforts for school improvement, while IHEs can more…

Now in the third year of operation, the Oklahoma Leadership in Educational Administration (LEAD) Project is implementing a professional development program for state educational administrators. The mission of the project is to develop and implement a research-based leadership skills training model to improve the effectiveness of practicing school…

The staff of North Park School, a small urban/suburban primary school (K-3) in Wheeling, West Virginia, made their school more effective by implementing well planned and coordinated changes based on current research. The belief that all students can learn is an important characteristic of an effective school. Therefore, the goal of the North Park…

This packet describes 12 promising practices identified in small and rural secondary schools in New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, and New York. Descriptions of the following innovations are presented: (1) two small school districts and local and state businesses that cooperated to provide a Mathematics Education for Gifted Secondary School Students…

This report supplements the final evaluation of the State Dissemination Grants Program (SDGP), a major initiative within the mission of the National Institute of Education to assist state educational agencies in implementing, strengthening, and institutionalizing dissemination services that improve educational practice and equity. The introduction…

Summaries of talks from this 3-day conference emphasize the potential of all students from any background to succeed in their education. One keynote speaker urges restructuring of educators' beliefs that many children cannot achieve at the level of a high school graduate. Speakers describe successful programs to encourage female school…

Ways to promote successful reform of colleges and schools in the 1980s are discussed. Attention is focused on issues pertaining to the curriculum, the teacher, and the student. Ways that colleges can contribute to reform of the schools are also addressed. It is claimed that many students have difficulty when they must use higher-order academic…