School counseling in Turkey and the United States has progressed on different historical paths. The two countries also have distinct cultures. This article reviews the historical development of the profession in both countries and specifically examines efforts to develop and implement broad national models based on a comprehensive developmental…

Since Federal regulations have given states the option to implement alternate assessments based on modified academic achievement standards (AA-MAS) as part of their accountability systems for a small group of students with disabilities, a number of states have made decisions about whether or not to develop and implement such an assessment.…

Policy implementation reflects a complex change process where government decisions are transformed into programs, procedures, regulations, or practices aimed at social betterment. Three factors affecting contemporary implementation processes are explored: networked governance, sociopolitical context and the democratic turn, and new public…

This paper discusses the results of a case study exploring perceptions of selected administrators and instructors at a Ukrainian state institution regarding the effectiveness of the Bologna Process at their institution. Data were collected from focus group interviews with five volunteer instructors involved in the implementation process. The…

In early 2008 the Board of Directors of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) convened a Task Force on Accreditation to work toward a unified approach to accreditation. The Task Force brought together AACTE representatives with the two major federally-recognized accrediting agencies in educator preparation--the…

An increasing number of jobs in today's workforce require postsecondary education, yet large numbers of workers lack the essential skills and credentials to fill these jobs. The result is that many workers remain underemployed, reaching a ceiling early in their working careers. In 2007, the Joyce Foundation launched the Shifting Gears initiative…

For more than two decades the U.S. Department of Education has supported campus- and community-based prevention programs through a number of programs and activities. For example, in 1987 the Department convened the first annual National Meeting for Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse and Violence Prevention in Higher Education as a forum to disseminate…

This paper is based on one prepared for South Australia's Training and Skills Commission. It comes at a time of strong interest in the quality and professionalism of the vocational education and training (VET) workforce. This interest is underpinned by research into what constitutes quality teaching, as well as initiatives such as the strategic…

The District Awards for Teacher Excellence's (D.A.T.E.'s) first year of implementation in 2008-09 occurred at a time when Texas was operating several state-funded performance pay programs. The three-year Governor's Educator Excellence Grant (G.E.E.G.) program was coming to its expected completion, while the Texas Educator Excellence Grant…

This "Fifth-Year Report" from the Evaluation of the Comprehensive School Reform Program Implementation and Outcomes (ECSRIO) is the final report on the outcomes of the federally funded Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) program. It presents findings about the relationship between participation in the U.S. Department of Education's…

The benefits of teamwork and collaboration have long been advocated by many educational theories, such as constructivist and social learning models. Among the various applications of collaborative learning, the iterative team-based learning (TBL) process proposed by Michaelsen, Fink, and Knight (2002) has been successfully used in the classroom…

This article examines the convergence of two popular school improvement policies: instructional coaching and data-driven decision making (DDDM). Drawing on a mixed methods study of a statewide reading coach program in Florida middle schools, the article examines how coaches support DDDM and how this support relates to student and teacher outcomes.…

In the current climate of shortages of high-quality engineering graduates, exacerbated by reduced high school enrollments in physics and mathematics, engineering faculties are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of K-12 outreach programs. Such programs can result in students being better prepared for and better informed about engineering…

Bologna reform eulogies and protests tend to focus on the benefits and shortcomings of the new two-tier curricula, their implementation and orientation. In this article, an assessment of the Bologna reforms is made in terms of their larger and less widely discussed systemic and institutional effects--which go far beyond the original reformers'…

Networks aiming for fundamental changes bring together a variety of actors who are part and parcel of a problematic context. These system innovation projects need to be accompanied by a monitoring and evaluation approach that supports and maintains reflexivity to be able to deal with uncertainties and conflicts while challenging current practices…