Expresses gratitude and respect to James Gray, retiring Director of the National Writing Project, and lists assignments Gray has outlined for the National Writing Project. (SR)

Discusses useful ideas about the teaching of writing found in the "Institutes of Oratory" by Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (A.D. 95) which emphasizes the interrelationship of reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Counters 12 current fallacies that militate against reviving such a plan. (NH)

Looks at the status of vocational-teacher-education programs today and describes what Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and Virginia tech are doing to revitalize their programs. (JOW)

Describes how the staff in one in-service program attempted to integrate assessment with another in-service program through the development and utilization of an implementation rubric. The rubric provided participants with opportunities to reflect upon their practice, revealed the changes that occurred in participants' classrooms and their…

Describes how Meharry Medical College, a 125-year-old historically Black medical school, was on the brink of closing down, but that through new leadership and partnerships, the school is financially healthy, and its students' board scores are the highest in the school's history. (EV)

Describes types and functions of student contact points in distance education, including academic counseling and library services; proposes a contouring and catchment method to determine the concentration of registered students and prospective candidates; and applies the method to Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) for strengthening…

This article reports on the development of the Health and Secondary Conditions Surveillance Instrument Monitoring and Promotion System for use with adults with developmental disabilities. Results of a pilot survey with 119 individuals illustrates how survey data might be used to improve systems of services and supports for this population.…

Describes the Most Significant Change (MSC) technique, a dialogical story-based technique that aims to facilitate program improvement by focusing the direction of work towards explicitly valued directions and away from less valued directions. Illustrates the use of MSC in an Australian case study. (SLD)

This author states her belief that there must be an answer to devising an effective and credible way to link compensation to professional development and improved teaching. Such a model would need to be transparent, equitable, and financially manageable for the school. It would need to marry objectivity with the art of teaching, and have buy-in…

Working Examples (WEx) is described by the authors as a vehicle for ideating and building radical innovations to change education. It is a community of researchers, designers, and educators working at the intersection of education and technology. "Examples" (ideas, work, and projects) allow people to explore new ideas, learn from each…

Where you find distressed neighborhoods, you will also find poorly performing public schools. Yet many contemporary school reform efforts ignore neighborhood-level factors that undeniably impact school performance. The purpose of this study is to use a case study approach with social institutional and urban school reform regime frameworks to…

This article explores the university-assisted community school approach as it has been developed at the University of Pennsylvania with its school and community partners in West Philadelphia since 1985, as well as adapted nationally. The approach is grounded in John Dewey's theory that the neighborhood school can function as the core neighborhood…

In fall of 2011 the University at Buffalo Libraries circulation department undertook Six Sigma training for the purpose of overhauling its student scheduling process. The department was able to mitigate significant staffing budgetary reductions and resource reallocations and to overcome the unique challenges of scheduling student labor for a…

Through vision, leadership, and creativity, Salisbury University's Blackwell Library transformed its access services department structurally and philosophically to better position itself to meet, and strive to exceed, today's user needs and expectations. Restructuring and the introduction of new leadership and new ideas provided the foundation for…

Recent years have brought many changes to the ways in which schools in the United States address learning disabilities in their students. In an attempt to provide all students with appropriate reading instruction and to identify struggling students in a more timely manner, the 2004 revision of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act…