Faculty learning communities (FLCs) are collaborative collegial groups of faculty and other teaching staff who are interested in and committed to the improvement of their teaching to accommodate a diverse student population through group discourse, reflection and goal setting. In this article, we describe our FLC experiences that were supported by…

In this paper we offer a model that seeks to develop an entrepreneurial ecosystem as a portfolio approach to economic development through ongoing partnerships vs. one-off initiatives that may serve as a prototype for economic development in transitional economies. The model, developed by Tupperware Brands, Rollins College, and the U.S. Department…

The purpose of this paper is to describe the development and implementation phases of online graduate nuclear engineering courses that are part of the Graduate Nuclear Engineering Certificate program at Virginia Tech. Virginia Tech restarted its nuclear engineering program in the Fall of 2007 with 60 students, and by 2009, the enrollment had grown…

Planning programs with learning outcomes that address diversity issues on campus can become fairly routine--a "plug and play" task--for a director of multicultural student affairs at a private, religious, predominantly white liberal arts university. However, connecting with African American and other minority students when they arrived on campus…

Much has been written about school-university partnerships including their general intent to positively impact student learning through the continuous professional development of classroom teachers. This article, which offers an in-depth description of the growth of a school-college partnership, follows the development of a partnership between a…

Afterschool programs that provide strong science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) learning experiences are making an impact on participating youth not only become excited and engaged in these fields but develop STEM skills and proficiencies, come to value these fields and their contributions to society, and--significantly--begin to see…

The majority of current web-based learning systems are closed learning environments where courses and learning materials are fixed, and the only dynamic aspect is the organization of the material that can be adapted to allow a relatively individualized learning environment. In this paper, we propose an evolving web-based learning system which can…

The Logan Square Neighborhood Association (LSNA) is a Chicago organization that, since 1997, has conducted a successful in-depth, parent-school collaboration program in nine schools on the northwest side of the city that represent about 10,000 students, or 2.5 percent of Chicago Public Schools' (CPS) total enrollment. It is a high-minority,…

The Talent Development program at Johns Hopkins, City Year, and Communities in Schools have created a new middle school and high school model that reduces dropout risk. Diplomas Now integrates strategies that are designed to raise student achievement, promotion, and graduation rates in the nation's most challenged high-poverty secondary schools. A…

In 2009, the second largest university in the nation was awarded a grant from NCURA to initiate a new fully-online graduate program in research administration. The Master of Research Administration (MRA) was approved by the institution's Board of Trustees in March 2011 and the first classes will begin August 2011. Currently the research literature…

After months of waiting, the grant reviews came back: "excellent," "excellent," and "fair." What?! How can this be? Why is the third review so out of line with the first two? On more than one occasion a principal investigator (PI) has been frustrated not only by a negative funding decision but more so by the accompanying reviewer evaluation forms…

A look back at the first year of the Language and Cultures Network for Australian Universities (LCNAU) highlights how great the need for such a network has been within the sector and how important LCNAU's role will be in ensuring the future of languages teaching and research in universities and beyond. LCNAU was established in early 2011 as part…

Well planned, short-term study abroad programs can benefit school counseling students through exposure to new and different cultural experiences. Students gain knowledge and skills that will help them serve the diverse cultural groups found in public school settings. The objective of the short-term study abroad program described in this article…

Since SC LENDS started operating in June 2009, more public libraries have come on board. All of this on the back end connects to a Mozilla-based staff client that has distributions for Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows, using SSL encryption to keep communications secure and private between remote libraries and the servers hosted at a high-end…

Educational evaluation in too many states and school districts, if done at all across an institution, has been reduced to crunching test scores in only the subject areas and grade levels tested. While measuring student achievement in reliable and valid ways is an important part of the mission of education, it is not enough. What's also needed is a…