As a requirement for a federal neighborhood revitalization grant, the authors trained resident interviewers and coordinated the conduct of more than 1000 door-to-door interviews of a stratified random sample. The targeted area was a multiethnic, lower income neighborhood that continues to experience the effects of past segregation. Monitoring and…

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 injected $7 billion into two of the Obama administration's signature competitive education grant programs: Race to the Top (RTT) and School Improvement Grants (SIG). While RTT focused on state policies and SIG focused on school practices, both programs promoted related policies and practices,…

One objective of the U.S. Department of Education's (ED) School Improvement Grants (SIG) and Race to the Top (RTT) program is to help states enhance their capacity to support the turnaround of low-performing schools. This capacity may be important, given how difficult it is to produce substantial and sustained achievement gains in low-performing…

The number of students attending afterschool programs has skyrocketed in recent years, currently serving an estimated 8.4 million children (Afterschool Alliance, 2009). Consequently, the demand for high quality afterschool programs, and to learn from successful ones, has never been greater. This "Making Afterschool Programs Better"…

In this article, Edward Zigler, interviewed by Barbara Beatty, talks about a turning point in the history of Head Start that reveals how policy choices, bureaucracy, and science came together when he was told to phase out the program in 1970. New to Washington, Zigler learned that President Richard M. Nixon's domestic policy advisor Daniel Patrick…

There are many assumptions made about the beliefs behind abstinence-only until marriage (AOUM) sex education, yet comparatively little research examining the views of abstinence education providers. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 21 abstinence grantees throughout New York State, I examine how individuals working in abstinence organizations…

The Lifelong Learning Imperative (LLI) project was initiated to assess current practices in lifelong learning for engineering professionals, reexamine the underlying assumptions behind those practices, and outline strategies for addressing unmet needs. The LLI project brought together leaders of U.S. industry, academia, government, and…

Policymakers and educators are increasingly expressing concerns that the U.S. is lagging behind other countries in educating the next generation of mathematicians and scientists. In response, the federal government, private foundations, and many "institutions of higher education" (IHEs) are encouraging STEM (science, technology,…

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan says he is eager to use a proposed $15 billion federal incentive-grant fund in part to reward states, districts, and even nonprofit organizations that have set high standards for the students they serve. "With this fund, we really have a chance to drive dramatic changes, to take to scale what works, invest…

National Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center (NECTAC) was asked to identify essential elements for supporting high performance and provision of high quality early intervention Part C services as determined by the Annual Performance Review (APR) required under Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). To respond, NECTAC…

The purpose of this article is to describe evaluation capacity building using an immersion approach in two schools: one with an administrator-led process and one with a teacher-led process. The descriptions delineate conceptual, developmental, and sustainability aspects of capacity building through the perspectives of the teachers, principals, and…

School Performance Reports, sometimes referred to as School Report Cards, are an increasingly effective and popular method for collecting program data in Correctional Education. This Overview presents the results of a study examining the current applications of Correctional Education School Report Cards. After inquiring with Offices of…

Describes the approach of Southern Maine Technical College (SMTC) in managing required federal student loan entrance and exit interviews. SMTC offers group interviews each time the student borrows, and has also increased student attendance rates at exit interviews to 94% by adding incentives such as prizes underwritten by willing sponsors. (DB)

The development of inquiry and project-based materials is challenging in many ways, not the least of which is the design of supports for teachers implementing such materials. We report on the design of educative and just-in-time teacher supports for an online project-based unit in ocean science. The teacher supports were visible as tabs on the…

Professional behavior during the General Accounting Office's (GAO's) present era of oversight can best be understood by reviewing the audit types that populate village life in the GAO and the repertoire the office uses in conducting program evaluation audits. (Author/LMO)