Although a growing body of research points to the critical need to foster reading, writing, speaking, and critical thinking skills for students in order to ensure their success in college, careers, and life, these efforts have tended to focus more on developing literacy skills in the early years, often ignoring secondary students. The outcome has…

Seven small private colleges in three states have found a way to reduce their administrative technology costs and expand their technological capability at the same time. They have done it by choosing the common-sense, yet unconventional, college and university strategy of genuine collaboration. The result, the Independent College Enterprise (ICE),…

In April 2008, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) contracted with the Educational Policy Improvement Center (EPIC) to facilitate a series of regional workshops and provide technical assistance to strengthen efforts to improve college readiness for all students. This final report summarizes these activities…

Between 1999 and 2003, the Western Massachusetts Writing Project experienced a series of changes that made it question whether it could survive as a writing project site. The convergence of retirement, unexpected death, and withdrawal of long-term financial support forced the existing leadership to develop a process to look deeply into the work of…

Part of the Project CAREER guidance component, this manual was developed to provide a resource to educators interested in establishing a center to house informative job and career materials for students. Information presented includes functions of the career resource center, minimum physical and personnel requirements, basic information materials,…

Committees composed of representatives from major guidance organizations in Massachusetts developed guidelines for counselors to use in assisting teachers, students, administrators, and local citizens in implementing career education in the schools. The guidelines first present the rationale for career education, (defining it and distinguishing it…

The guidelines outlined in this pamphlet were developed in cooperation with members of local parent advisory councils and school officials. The guidelines describe the rationale for parental involvement, the specific steps to be taken in organizing parent advisory councils, and the roles and responsibilities of these councils. (CLK)

This guide outlines the methods for organizing and using vocational technical advisory committees in secondary schools in Massachusetts. It is intended to be used as the basis for school staff training to be conducted by personnel at the State Department of Education's Regional Education Centers. The guide provides illustrations and exhibits of…

The career guidance advisory committee reviewed both national and State efforts in the area of career guidance and attempted to define and develop the concept. The committee examined concepts that were relevant to the needs of Massachusetts and developed a rough framework on which to build a comprehensive State plan. The report addressed itself to…

The six chapters in this publication describe the scope of school/business partnership activity in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Following the first chapter's introductory remarks, chapter 2 outlines methodology for the research project. Surveys were sent to superintendents of schools and to various businesses thought likely to be involved in…

PRESENT PROCEDURES AND INNOVATIONS RESULTING FROM TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGES WERE EXAMINED IN TWO REPRESENTATIVE SCHOOL SYSTEMS TO HELP OTHER SCHOOLS, BOARDS, AND FACULTIES FACING COMPARABLE PROBLEMS. THE STUDY FOCUSED ON MANPOWER TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT, THE RESOURCES AVAILABLE IN THE COMMUNITY, THE PROFESSIONAL STAFF OF THE SCHOOLS, THE RECEPTIVITY…

This report examines the types of professional development necessary to implement successful online learning initiatives. The potential for schools utilizing online learning is tremendous: schools can develop new distribution methods to enable equity and access for all students, they can provide high quality content for all students and they can…

This guide describes the partnerships created by the Bay State Skills Corporation, which successfully united more than 100 people from government, education, and the private sector to train 332 people for jobs averaging $6.27 per hour to start; it also provides guidelines for establishing similar programs. The guide contains seven chapters. The…

Because it is based upon the premise that learning is a lifelong process and that citizen involvement is essential to neighborhood problem solving, community education is particularly attuned to the current needs of cities and can be particularly effective in responding to urban housing needs. One way in which leaders can simultaneously address…

This pamphlet outlines guidelines for the implementation of a full-time program of instruction in transitional bilingual education. The Transitional Bilingual Education Act mandates a full-time program of instruction in all those courses or subjects which a child is required by law to receive and which are required by the child's school committee.…