This article describes qualitative findings regarding lessons learned from research and demonstration projects in four states focused on the implementation of clinical supervision within their public child welfare agencies. This was part of a larger mixed methods study of the effectiveness of these new clinical supervision models on practice,…

Better Jobs Better Care was the nation's largest single initiative created to reduce the high vacancy and turnover rates of direct care workers and improve workforce quality through both policy and practice changes. In this article, we describe the important role and key characteristics of direct care workers, what motivated the unique partnership…

Implementation of patient safety initiatives can be costly in time and energy. Because of small volumes and limited resources, rural hospitals often are not included in nationally driven patient safety initiatives. This article describes the Tennessee Rural Hospital Patient Safety Demonstration project, whose goal was to strengthen capacity for…

A new cooperative program jointly designed by Philadelphia school principals and University of Pennsylvania faculty members allows principals the opportunity to earn graduate degrees while studying educational theory in the context of their own practical experiences. (JBM)

Last fall, the National Center for Public Policy in Higher Education published the results of a five-state demonstration project aimed at developing common state-level benchmarks for student learning for its fifty-state report card, "Measuring Up." One of the instruments used in this Pew-funded project was the Collegiate Learning…

To advance educational innovation, the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education supports a practitioner-based action research approach to educational improvement through project reporting, conferences, project clusters, Lessons Learned publications, feedback, policy revisions, and dissemination grants. The fund attempts to sustain a…

Dissemination approaches of the U.S. Department of Education are explored in the context of federal efforts to recognize the best, considering relatively systematic approaches to recognition and the five vulnerable evaluation areas of (1) undefined universes; (2) noncomparable goals; (3) identifying reproducible conditions; (4) saturation; and (5)…

After describing inadequacies of current U.S. Department of Education funding strategies in identifying and sharing the best of research and development, this article outlines an alternative vision centered on using evaluation to guide replication. How to overcome constraints in implementing this vision for federal education leadership is…

Two approaches for identifying, evaluating, and disseminating materials are discussed. One is the National Diffusion Network and its Program Effectiveness Panel, and the other is the Committee on Education and Human Resources, a new interagency effort with potential for examining a large body of generally underutilized mathematics and science…

The case for an in-depth evaluation of many federal education programs is argued, particularly those providing site-specific information capable of informing program improvement. The reauthorization of the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) offers an opportunity for the U.S. Department of Education to play a leadership role in…

As part of the Chapter 1 program, the U.S. Department of Education conducts research activities and uses nominations from a variety of sources to identify promising practices and document their success. The department disseminates this information through its award process in the Chapter 1 School Recognition Program. (SLD)