Examines issues in monitoring students' growth and performance as they progress through a training program. These include ensuring faculty and advisor access to evaluation information; demonstrating student growth while remediating weaknesses; and tracking trends in student work. A model for developing a continuous assessment project at one…

Summarizes ongoing economic impact assessment activities at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for its Measurement and Standards Laboratory Program. Explores designing economic impact studies for integration into assessments of broader programmatic objectives. (SLD)

Although educational improvements have occurred over the past 30 years, few have had optimal effects. Three functional areas (teacher-organization-intervention) jointly influence an innovation's success. Realization of innovations appears to be more influenced by subjective experiences and culturally bound opinions than by well-managed…

Examines the implementation of quality programs in four organizations; the communication used to introduce the programs and to encourage employees to participate; and employees' perceptions of the programs, implementation activities, and change agents. Presents four key themes that emerged: creating and communicating vision; sensemaking and…

Study of the implementation of management National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) in three British organizations identified problems with the competency-based format. Although NVQs are supposedly based on actual workplace practice, candidates work toward criteria that may not match roles and responsibilities and developmental work is…

Explores aspects of implementing an elementary professional development school (PDS) with a faculty of 80 teachers over a 1-year period. Findings of this ethnographic case study report the visions of teachers in this PDS, the processes that impacted the sharing of teachers' visions, and the PDS efforts that encouraged teachers to explicate and…

Addresses the changing nature of Catholic schools, emphasizing, however, the core beliefs of Catholicism that have remained the same throughout. Focuses on the implementation by Catholic schools of three goals: enthusiasm, invitation, and witness of Catholicism. (YKH)

Discusses three areas essential in reporting on school improvement plans: process, which refers to the legitimacy of procedures used to assess the improvement plan; equity, pertaining to methods that show both low- and high-achieving students benefiting from the plan; and reporting, which refers to clarity of presentation. (JDI)

Examines the trend to use person-centered planning (PCP) in the provision of services to people with developmental disabilities. Reviews the history of this approach and warns that the implementation of PCP will be disappointing if the procedure is applied rigorously without regard for the context of relationships and agreements necessary for it…

Presents an overview of the articles in this special issue and defines scaling up and externally developed school reform. Key elements for successful scaling up are highlighted. (MMU)

Marcel is a prototype electronic document delivery system based on multipurpose Internet mail extensions (MIME) that was designed and tested by the University of Northern Colorado. This article discusses program implementation and testing, hardware and software requirements and availability, and the program's future. (PEN)

Planning and implementing a website requires the participation of most school or district departments. There are four phases: planning and information gathering (pertaining to audience, cost estimation, purpose, content, and scope); design and layout considerations; construction and implementation; and final integration (involving policy and legal…

A literature review examined the scope, conceptualization, and implementation of applied academics in the 1990s. Applied academics courses have been deemphasized in favor of applied teaching methods. The impact on student performance and attitudes is mixed; more research is needed. (Contains 79 references.) (SK)

A survey of 145 schools found that all had experimented with innovative purchasing approaches. Many used electronic methods, such as credit-card, fast-track requisition (most popular), bidding and purchasing, and data interchange. Results suggest that nonelectronic innovations (just-in-time, cooperative, direct, and consortium leverage purchasing)…

Discusses how college presidents who were asked by the Knight commission to suggest changes in athletics programs founds themselves caught between forces focused on winning and on academics. (EV)