Delaware, the District of Columbia, and New Jersey have spent past three years developing math standards and frameworks with guidance from state and local stakeholders and national standards efforts. Evaluation of these states' progress concluded that reform efforts are limited, unless new assessments are aligned with standards. Professional…

Provides a practitioner's overview of the processes, models, and lessons learned from a successful application of Level Three training evaluation theory, tools, and principles. Focuses on the development and implementation of a program for a fast track, cost-effective evaluation that balances organizational needs, regulatory requirements, and…

Creating a unitary system to support educating handicapped students in their neighborhood general education programs requires that general and specialized services complement and support each other and that all personnel employ instructional strategies that meet diverse students' needs. Restructuring efforts require careful planning,…

A model of technology education should provide a framework allowing immersion into actual technological practice. The article presents a model that challenges students to apply human direction to identify problems or opportunities, select appropriate resources, and employ technological processes to produce assessable outcomes. A model laboratory…

Previous research on program implementation is integrated and extended to form a participatory approach to evaluating program implementation. This method focuses on the continuous active involvement of program developers, managers, and staff in the evaluation process. The methodology is applied to an actual program to highlight the steps involved.…

Differences in theories of actions may be a source of considerable conflict in education reform. An analysis of the first two years of the ATLAS Communities Project shows how different theories of action contributed to significant disagreement over issues on the process of change, nature of curriculum, and personal and organizational development.…

New superintendents' most common mistakes include extolling a previous district's way of doing things, assuming they are the only experts, having answers before knowing the questions, developing person-specific rules, having either an open- or closed-door policy, redecorating, and being a conspicuous consumer. Avoidance strategies are outlined.…

Reviews relevant literature in the areas of communication and innovation and explores how efforts toward innovative practices are directly related to globalism and business strategy. Focuses on issues associated with national culture, corporate culture, and professional culture that are relevant to strategies for researching business communication…

Drawing on prior research, focuses on the intervention approaches primary and secondary schools take as they formulate and apply improvement efforts. Describes conceptualization, intervention impact, redefinition of the problem, and impact evaluation as stages of improvement and identifies essential conditions that indicate a school staff that…

Explores: (1) What are recent trends in the regionalization of higher education (RHE)? (2) What are preconditions for effective RHE? (3) What is envisioned for RHE in the Southern African Development Community's Education and Training Protocol? (3) What are strengths and weaknesses of this protocol? and (4) What guidelines can be set for southern…

Longitudinal evaluation of KIDS' TEAM, which developed community coalitions for youth at risk, found that the focus of most coalitions has expanded beyond the original goal. Those that still thrive have outside funding, committed members, and public recognition. Other success factors include valid needs assessments, broad participation,…

Policymakers and academics often identify institutional boundaries as one of the factors that shape the capacity of jurisdictions to manage natural resources such as water, forests, and scenic lands. This article examines two key bodies of literature--common-pool resource management theory and local public economy theory--to explain how the…

The "No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB)" is designed to achieve an ambitious goal: All children will be proficient in reading and mathematics by the 2013-14 school year. A key strategy for achieving this goal is accountability. Based on findings from two federally funded studies--the Study of State Implementation of Accountability…

This report presents findings from the Year 3 evaluation of Texas' state-level Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs, or GEAR UP, grant. GEAR UP grant requirements include an evaluation component designed to assess program effectiveness and to measure progress toward project goals. To this end, the evaluation considers…

Recently, more and more researchers have been exploring uses of mobile technology that support new instructional strategies. Based on research findings related to peer and self assessment, this study developed a Mobile Assessment Participation System (MAPS) using Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) as the platform. In addition, the study proposes…