School principals can foster effective literacy instruction by orchestrating community collaboration in an ongoing cycle of literacy program development, implementation, evaluation, and revision outlined in this ten-step plan. The steps address forming a community advisory board, appointing a building literacy leader, forming a literacy team,…

The amount of data available for the classroom teacher to inform instruction and increase student achievement has grown significantly in recent years. New technology-based assessments, analytical tools and reporting systems have joined traditional methods of assessing student learning. Unfortunately the training needed for teachers to access this…

Across the nation, school policymakers are grappling with what to do about the increasing numbers of students who do not advance beyond ninth grade. National estimates put the student attrition rate before tenth grade at between 11 and 33 percent, and only about 70 percent of ninth graders make it to graduation. This policy brief focuses on one…

Analysis of Qatar's standards-based student assessment system, the first in the region, offers several lessons for other nations instituting similar reforms. These include the need to coordinate on standards and assessment development, allow sufficient time for a fully aligned assessment, and communicate about the purposes and uses of testing.…

The purpose of this study was to create knowledge about peace economics content of Midwest undergraduate peace studies programs, barriers that constrain economic content expansion, and strategies to overcome these barriers. A 40 question survey of directors and 4 director interviews were used to gather data to test hypotheses on the curriculum…

Leaders in hospitality management education face diverse challenges in today's competitive and changing environment. Evolving demands from superiors, financial challenges, and faculty and students increasing demands, create a turbulent environment in which administrators must thrive. One of the keys in being effective leaders is the application of…

The primary goal of this study was to measure public perceptions, opinions and priorities as they pertain to youth issues in Sacramento for the purposes of further developing public and private youth programming and public policy in the Sacramento region. By presenting a "statistically reliable" profile of public opinion on youth issues,…

In light of today's explosion of knowledge and the complexity of American culture, Pentecostal church leaders face the daunting challenge of effecting biblical change in their communities. Biblical truth reveals that true, lasting change begins by the power of God activated in a believer through faith and perseverance in Christ. To assure the…

This article reports on current and emerging trends in the use of distance education technologies in social work education. Areas studied include the extent of distance education programs, curricular areas covered, technologies used, pedagogical approaches, intentions for degree-program development, sources of pressure to adopt distance education…

While researchers have developed more effective programs and strategies to prevent the initiation of substance use and increasingly communities are delivering these interventions, determining the degree to which they are delivered as they were designed remains a significant research challenge. In the past several years, more attention has been…

This is a story about how a national Canadian environmental education program (Green Street) evolved in unpredictable ways and about the particular twist in the road that led program stakeholders to focus on scaling up in different ways than originally imagined. The "twist" occurred when the program reached the initially perceived…

This article reports on the use of narrative therapy ideas and practices in working with families that are homeless in a shelter-based, multiple-family discussion group program called Fresh Start for Families. It begins with a review of the challenges facing homeless families. It then briefly describes the collaborative methods used to develop the…

Using concepts from the evaluation literature, this case study describes the instrumental, conceptual, and political influence of the Head Start National Reporting System (NRS) and on-going child assessments in a local Head Start program. This study found that a local program intentionally aimed to limit the influence of the NRS. The NRS validated…

This experiment tested a treatment designed to improve choral students' expressiveness regarding keyword emphasis and phrase shaping. The treatment was founded upon the constructivist belief that students actively construct conceptual knowledge through problem solving. Participants were 46 university students randomly selected from a nonauditioned…

In 2010, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the Kindergarten Readiness Act into law, which changed the kindergarten entry age so that children must turn 5 by September instead of December to enroll. The new grade level was put into place to promote school readiness for California's youngest learners. It also established a new grade…