The Common Ground Multicultural Dialogue program in the Department of Resident Life at the University of Maryland is an innovative peer education program designed to teach skills for engagement through exploration of contemporary multicultural societal dilemmas. The Common Ground Dialogue Program was launched in 2000 to provide undergraduate…

The 2010 Professional Development Schools National Conference recognized the professional development school relationship between Towson University with its dual certification major and the Howard County Public School System for its outstanding collaborative accomplishments, naming the Towson-Waterloo-Ilchester-Bellows Spring PDS as a recipient of…

Research on summer learning losses has unambiguous implications for America: all children need learning opportunities in the summer. But how and when policymakers, educators, and youth service providers will fashion appropriate programming are far less clear. At the root of this problem is the need to vastly increase, stabilize, and coordinate…

This series of papers was originally presented as a symposium at the annual meetings of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) and the National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME) held between April 9, 2007, and April 13, 2007, in Chicago, IL. The authors represent school districts and departments of education across the…

In this article, we share how a professional development school (PDS) partnership between several elementary school sites within a district and an institution of higher education prepares special education teacher candidates. The following challenges are identified for PDS stakeholders: recruiting qualified special education mentor teachers,…

The Maryland State Department of Education developed this framework for a suicide prevention program. The program framework addresses the following goals: (1) increase awareness among school personnel and community awareness among school personnel and community leaders of the incidence of teenage suicide; (2) train school personnel in individual…

To bring more young adults into the Thurmont Branch of the Frederick County (Maryland) Public Library, a children's librarian and the Young Adult Advisory Committee created Teen Poetry Night, at which teens were invited to read their own poetry or the work of a favorite poet. Program planning and implementation are described. (PEN)

This article is a case study of the Virtual Business Information Center (VBIC), a collaborative effort since 1998 of the College of Information Studies, Robert H. Smith School of Business, and the University of Maryland Libraries. The case study traces its development, implementation, and evaluation and addresses collaboration among academic…

This legislative report presents the findings of a 1986 telephone survey of states that have enacted state-funded pre-kindergarten early childhood education programs. The survey was designed to collect data related to the legislative authority, intent, and oversight of the early childhood education programs and to gain information on the…

An overview is presented of the beginning teacher program in the Frederick County (Maryland) schools. The focus of the program is on three concerns: (1) the problems of beginning teachers as perceived by themselves and others; (2) the kinds of support efforts that presently exist; and (3) implications for the future development of support programs…

Electronic portfolios are a student-centered outcomes-based assessment regime involving learners in the gathering, selection, and organization of artifacts synthesized into a compilation purposed to demonstrate knowledge, skills, and/or achievements supported by reflections that articulate the relevance, credibility, and meaning of the artifacts…

After a state-wide study, the Maryland Commission on Environmental Education submitted the final report to the Governor and the General Assembly. Embodied in the report were six recommendations for the future of environmental education in Maryland. The necessity for a strong public commitment by the Governor and members of the General Assembly was…