Coalitions have key roles in helping their communities accomplish the following: (1) Track the level of literacy in the community; (2) Use that information to help identify what, and how much, literacy assistance is needed; (3) Assess the extent to which community literacy programs are meeting the need, including how well existing literacy…

Since its initiation in 2003, the College Student Western China Program has had several satisfying achievements. At the same time, however, problems exist in the project. This article gives a brief analysis of problems encountered in the project from the aspects of publicity and campaign work, plans and schedules, student participation, voluntary…

The Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA) of 2009 gave states additional resources and tools aimed at improving participation in Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). In 2007, five million uninsured children were eligible for Medicaid or CHIP, constituting 64 percent of all uninsured children.…

School-based improvement programs represent a core strategy in improving education because they can leverage pre-existing social and organizational structures to promote coordinated and comprehensive change across multiple facets of schooling. School-based programs are generally designed to be implemented by intact schools/districts, frequently…

Xavier University of Louisiana leads the nation in awarding BS degrees in the biological sciences to African-American students. In this multiyear study with ~5500 participants, data-driven interventions were adopted to improve student academic performance in a freshman-level general biology course. The three hour-long exams were common and…

The United States faces a pressing national security and competitiveness challenge rooted in a shortage of a diverse, highly skilled workforce, particularly in vital cross-disciplinary fields such as data science and analytics, cybersecurity, and information technology. To address this challenge, Business-Higher Education Forum (BHEF) launched the…

International development organizations increasingly use "participatory development" approaches to improve the effectiveness of their programs. Participatory frameworks are commonly limited in scope and funder-driven; these top-down approaches to participation have proven to be both ineffective, and at times, contradictory in their…

The author argues that students' persistent struggles with mathematics suggest a new form of professional development for teachers is needed. The author draws on a model of professional learning in literacy education to propose an analogous model for mathematics education: teachers of mathematics need to produce mathematical ideas, themselves, in…

Iin urban communities across the nation, a broad range of partners have committed to reinventing educational time together to ensure equitable access to rich learning opportunities for all young people. Across the nation, education partners are using their creativity, commitment, and unique resources to create new school and system designs that…

The purpose of this study was to develop a model for evaluating a professional development school program to enact an evidence-based model for a continuous cycle of program improvement. Guided by the logic model for program evaluation, we developed three survey instruments based on the professional development school standards of the National…

Professional development provides a means to build capacity among school personnel when it is delivered as part of a systematic, long-term approach to school and teacher improvement. This research examines a sustained, diocesan-wide professional development model, called the ACE Collaborative for Academic Excellence, that aims to build capacity…

Higher education in Australia is currently in a state of flux, with the Federal Government's Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency commencing operations in January 2012. The "After Standards Project" has been working with Australian university history departments and the Australian Historical Association, educating and…

Frustrated by their own state's pace and direction of school improvement, eight California districts have banded together to move ahead on rolling out the Common Core State Standards and designing new teacher evaluations based in part on student performance. Known as CORE--the California Office to Reform Education--the member districts also…

Teachers need career pathways that provide new challenges and sustained opportunities for leadership without leaving the classroom. Better opportunities for leadership and innovative pathways help to increase the retention of strong teachers. Although few such programs existed several years ago, a growing number of states, districts, charter…

A well-designed professional development program can help first- and second-year faculty thrive in their new academic environment. Faculty developers must consider the length and frequency of such programs and their focus; requirements for participation; the role of mentors; ways to establish collegiality; and opportunities for developing the…