This study explores the efforts at Brigham Young University to improve preservice candidates' technology integration using the Teacher Work Sample (TWS) as an assessment tool. Baseline data that was analyzed from 95 TWSs indicated that students were predominantly using technology for productivity and information presentation purposes even though…

High-quality out-of-school-time (OST) programs have a positive effect on youth development, but many cities have found it difficult to address the challenges of expanding and improving the quality of programs offered to underserved and high-need students. In response, The Wallace Foundation sponsored an initiative to help five cities increase…

In a series of New Jersey Supreme Court decisions known as Abbott v. Burke, the 28 (now 31) urban school districts serving the state's poorest students were ordered to create systems of high-quality preschool for all three- and four-year-old children, beginning in the 1999-2000 school year. The Abbott Preschool Program now serves approximately…

Introduction: Little is known regarding how to accomplish large-scale health care improvement. Our goal is to improve the quality of chronic disease care in all primary care practices throughout North Carolina. Methods: Methods for improvement include (1) common quality measures and shared data system; (2) rapid cycle improvement principles; (3)…

Background/Context: Community colleges are central to the United States' college completion goals. A popular strategy pushed by a number of influential policy organizations and foundations is a policy of tying state funding to community college completions, otherwise known simply as performance funding. This is happening despite little to no…

In today's rapidly changing global economy, "21st century skills" means much more than proficiency in basic academic subjects. One of the most important noncognitive competencies for student success is conscientiousness, which encompasses traits such as perseverance, self-regulation, resilience, and responsibility. Researchers have found…

Most special education administrators do not get the chance to network regularly with professional peers to discuss job challenges and strategies. School-district special education directors routinely juggle complex, difficult, time-consuming, and emotion-laden job demands, but when things get tough, they usually find themselves solving problems…

David Pearce Snyder has predicted that "if a significant number of major mainstream institutions do not undertake publicly acknowledged initiatives to dramatically improve the relevance of their curriculums, the rigor of their standards, and the productivity of their operations...the marketplace will have begun to make available so many…

This document is a committee report on H.R. 5087, a bill to improve veterans' education assistance programs, which the committee recommended unanimously to approve as amended. Some of the major provisions of the bill are the following: (1) change the requirements that military personnel complete high school equivalency degree requirements before…

Although the author offers no handy formula to determine program effectiveness, she does present an extensive list of statements that can help the school administrator plan program improvement with his music teachers. (Editor)

Skills or knowledge acquired in short-term educational experiences are often rapidly washed-out after returning to a work environment. This article describes an attempt to maintain the skills of employment counselors after they return from a workshop setting to their work environment. (Author)

A variety of traditional and nontraditional selection indices were used to predict the outcome of a graduate-level course in counseling which was specifically designed to improve the students' human relations skills. The need for a new and more efficient predictive model for graduate-level counselor training is discussed. (Author)

This handbook, one of five local handbooks developed to support specialized implementation of the National Career Development Guidelines, presents guidelines for developing comprehensive programs for students who are served at the post-secondary school level. Part I describes the need for guidelines and standards in career development, defines…

More than 50 child care experts were asked (1) What aspects of child care are most likely to ensure high quality? (2) What are the current barriers to achieving quality in child care? and (3) What corporate or labor initiative would make the greatest difference in improving the quality of child care services? Recommendations generated from the…

The way in which the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) is or is not serving the agricultural community is the focus of these proceedings. This record contains presentations and/or written testimony given by senators and representatives, by the directors of JTPA service delivery areas, by a representative from the Job Service in Iowa, by several…