Coaching is an individualized approach to professional development where educators work towards specific teaching goals with support and feedback from a designated colleague or expert. Coaching appears to be increasingly common in early childhood education (ECE) classrooms, and a number of local, state, and federal policy initiatives over the past…

Since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (2002), there has been increased interest in using student achievement data (through standardized tests) to evaluate teacher effectiveness. Two U.S. Department of Education secretaries, Secretary Spellings and Secretary Duncan, have expressed interest in growth models and the need to…

This brief explores three examples of state policies designed to help students and families cope with rising tuition costs at four-year institutions: the Wisconsin Covenant, the Georgia HOPE Scholarship Program, and the Indiana Twenty-first Century Scholars Program. Although the authors acknowledge the important role two-year colleges play in…

The interim report of Project SKILL, a Wisconsin demonstration project which provides job placement of handicapped persons in State Civil Service positions, covers second year activities of the project. Second year developments included: definition of intake and screening as a staff speciality; utilizing of special personnel strategies to decrease…

This preliminary case study of inter-organizational dissemination arrangements presents a conceptual framework for conducting large-scale investigations of state dissemination activities and its application in the organization and analysis of information dealing with such arrangements in Wisconsin and Utah. When the findings of the Wisconsin case…

Identifies ways of using state intellectual freedom resources to support colleagues experiencing censorship attempts in public schools; shares mechanisms for collecting data on censorship attempts; shares highlights and implications of Wisconsin survey results and materials of interest; and recommends ideas which can be put into practice at…

This technical assistance guide was developed to consolidate a statewide understanding of the effort to systematize the delivery of employment and training programs through the local formation of job centers in Wisconsin, and to provide a compilation, drawn from 20 local models, that explains how the programs are delivered. The guide is organized…

The Wisconsin Early Childhood Collaborating Partners (WECCP) is a grassroots effort providing leadership and guidance to state agencies and local organizations in facilitating the development and implementation of a plan to permit every child and family in Wisconsin access to a blended, comprehensive delivery system for high quality early…

In the 1990s, federal education legislation and policies have encouraged state and local efforts in educational reform and placed a new emphasis on education for and about work. These initiatives have engaged the active participation of a broad range of partners and have spurred a variety of locally customized programs and practices. Nationally,…

A research project was designed to develop and validate instrumentation and procedures for a comprehensive internal and external evaluation of Wisconsin's Vocational, Technical and Adult Education Field/Community Services programs. A review of evaluation literature pertaining to adult and continuing education, the identification of statewide…

The nature and functions of pupil personnel servcies staff, together with a model of a typical pupil personnal services organization found effective in the public schools of Wisconsin, are presented. Salient features of the recommended model include: (1) services for all children; (2) direct line responsibility to the district administrators; (3)…

The National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research and the National Institute of Mental Health jointly sponsored a project for the development of statewide organizations for parents of children with emotional disorders. The Statewide Parent Organization Demonstration Project (SPODP) has two major goals: to stimulate and support the…

The Wisconsin Technical College System Board Phase V Equity Staff Development project continued staff development efforts to eliminate bias and stereotyping in vocational education. Based upon evaluations indicating a need for a postsecondary equity training model, five technical college equity representatives attended two planning sessions to…

This document consists of the final report and executive summary of a distance education technology study conducted on behalf of the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board (WECB) during 1992-93 in order to provide information to assist the educational institutions of the state in formulating strategic directions for the development of distance…

This report by the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Wisconsin's Telecommunications Infrastructure considers infrastructure to be the common network that connects individual residences, businesses, and agencies, rather than the individual systems and equipment themselves. The task force recognizes that advances in telecommunications technologies and…