Recommends that trainers expand their skills activities and working relationships with other specialists (data processing, marketing, finance, etc.) to influence the rate of productivity. (CT)

Discusses whether corporate training and education needs are better served by one large training department or by many small training staffs directly controlled by the departments. (JOW)

Describes how the technology education program at Driver Middle School in Winchester, Indiana evolved from one with inadequate facilities and materials to one that received the Program Excellence Award from the International Technology Education Association. Includes tips for improving a technology education program. (JOW)

Describes how telecourses may be educating more people than online courses do, and that the Internet provides opportunities for further growth and improvement in such courses. (EV)

In an effort to improve student services and increase student satisfaction, Carnegie Mellon University embarked on a mission to re-engineer its enrollment process. Discusses the steps involved and the lessons learned over the course of this transformation. (EV)

Asserts that as institutional support of student affairs areas becomes increasingly tied to learning outcomes, the effect of fraternity and sorority involvement on intellectual development is critical to its continued support. Addresses learning outcomes of fraternity and sorority membership, fostering improved learning outcomes, changing…

Understanding consumers' concerns about vocational rehabilitation services is important because of the current emphasis on empowerment and consumer-directed services. This study focused on participants' responses to an open-ended survey question that asked them what they thought could be done to improve their satisfaction with a vocational…

In the case of higher education, the hills are more like mountains of data that "we're accumulating at a ferocious rate," according to Gerry McCartney, CIO of Purdue University (Indiana). "Every higher education institution has this data, but it just sits there like gold in the ground," complains McCartney. Big Data and the new tools people are…

The digitized collections of artifacts known as electronic portfolios are creating solutions to a variety of performance improvement needs in ways that are cost-effective and improve both individual and group learning and performance. When social media functionality is embedded in e-portfolios, the tools support collaboration, social learning,…

What does performance improvement look like in practice in today's organizations? As part of its commitment to the learning profession, the American Society for Training and Development annually judges the practices of organizations through a blind peer review process to determine what merits the best practice designation. This article contains…

Functional behavior assessment and function-based support have increasingly been used in school settings in the past decade. This increased use has come under scrutiny from some experts who have argued in the past that function-based support has not yet been proven to be effective in typical school settings with students without severe…

This article discusses how to make process use an independent variable in evaluation practice: the purposeful means of building an organization's capacity to conduct and use evaluations in the long run. The goal of evaluation capacity building (ECB) is to strengthen and sustain effective program evaluation practices through a number of activities:…

No Child Left Behind (NCLB), with its emphasis on standards-based accountability, has put educators under considerable pressure to improve student academic outcomes. Much of the funding for after-school programs comes from education budgets and is administered by state and local education agencies. Consequently, after-school programs are often…

Successfully navigating early adolescence depends, in large part, on the availability of safe and engaging activities and supportive relationships with adults, yet many preteens have limited access to positive supports and opportunities such as high-quality after-school programs that could put them on a path to success. Funders, policymakers and…