In February 1993 the Buffalo Financial Plan Commission was asked to conduct a financial and management assessment of the Buffalo (New York) public schools. The effort involved the work of 115 volunteers from 75 businesses and community organizations in the Buffalo area. Thirty-four recommendations were produced, which were expected to yield annual…

As part of the annual program review reporting process, colleges in the Illinois Community College System are asked to respond to specific questions regarding current programs provided in an addendum to the state Program Review Guide. This report provides the additional questions for the 1995-96 program review in three sections. The first section…

The Illinois Articulation Initiative is a comprehensive statewide effort among colleges and universities to enhance the transfer process for students among all sectors of higher education in Illinois. One of the main features of the initiative is the general education core curriculum and a list of statewide articulated general education courses…

As a follow-up to 1985 and 1991 efforts to determine its own effectiveness in providing useful information to the college community, the Office of Institutional Research (OIR) at Florida's Miami-Dade Community College conducted a self-evaluation in 1994. Questionnaires were mailed to 296 department chairs, Board members, and other professionals…

This paper discusses the use of focus groups to investigate criteria used by college students to determine their satisfaction with higher education, and presents the results of a pilot study. It reviews research on the use of focus groups, discusses the development of a focus group guide for the current study, and examines problems associated with…

Based on recommendations from a state Task Force on Institutional Effectiveness, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board developed a new institutional review system designed to identify institutional and programmatic strengths and areas of concern, verify institutional outcomes and improvement efforts, identify exemplary programs and…

A survey was conducted of 687 teachers and 768 administrators on the implementation and perceptions of Colorado's mandated certificated personnel performance evaluation system, which requires that all school districts adopt performance standards for certificated personnel and that all administrators receive training in personnel evaluation skills.…

The Star Schools Assistance Program has been funding activities since 1988. It provides projects with seed money to develop distance learning programming and equip sites. In addition, Star Schools has served as a focal point for demonstrating innovative uses of technology to advance educational opportunity and improvement. This paper represents…

The Star Schools Program has funded projects to explore innovative educational applications of technology in distance education. Funded projects have applied a variety of technologies, including videodisks, compressed data transmission, fiber optic technology, and computer networks. Program evaluation is a mandated aspect of the program. This…

This report provides an assessment of the Central Park East (CPE) elementary school (in New York City) effort, an effort by teachers who believed that the "progressive education" that worked for the children of the wealthy and privileged in many private and suburban schools could work equally well for poor and working-class children.…

In the fragmented federal system, over 150 programs provide employment training assistance to adults and out-of-school youth. Individually, these programs have well-intended purposes. Collectively, they raise four concerns: (1) they are difficult for job seekers and employers to access and for administrators to implement; (2) they overlap and…

The Des Moines (Iowa) Independent Community School District Department of Information Management provides leadership and management services for the district in the areas of strategic planning for district improvement, technology, telecommunications, accountability, program evaluation, research, testing/assessment, and student information. This is…

The U.S. Department of Education awarded 19 Challenge Grants for Technology in Education in fiscal year 1995, and planned to award additional grants in fiscal year 1996. The diverse projects are intended to mobilize resources, develop technology enabled learning environments, and provide lessons to others seeking to make effective use of…

The Lead Teacher Project at Ohio University included 84 teacher participants who represented 42 schools from 13 school districts in Appalachian Ohio. The project was designed to enhance the teaching and learning of science and mathematics at the elementary school level by helping the teacher participants develop skills, knowledge, attitudes, and…

This study assessed the long-term effects on teaching approaches, acquired knowledge, and attitudes regarding small group teaching exhibited by faculty members who attended a 2-day workshop on Small Group Teaching. Each participant in the study was a physician on the faculty of the McGill University Department of Family Medicine and had attended…