Background: Most community college students from low-income families have ambitious educational degree goals, but only a small fraction attains them. For many decades, sociologists have primarily attributed this problem to a cooling out process in which college practitioners diminish students' educational ambitions using academic reorientation…

In this paper, I present a design case of the problem-identification process prior to the initiation of a Networked Improvement Community (NIC). A NIC is a type of research-practice partnership (RPP) that brings together researchers and practitioners to tackle complex problems of practice, and in doing so, proposes a social reorganization of the…

We use the random assignment of a private Wisconsin need-based grant to estimate the impacts of financial aid on college persistence among Pell Grant recipients at 13 public universities over three years. For equity and efficiency reasons, governments use conditional cash transfers to reduce the relationship between family income and college…

The educational achievement and attainment of young people in the United States has been a long-standing issue of concern. While analyses of long-term trend data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) show that students in the United States have made gains in reading and mathematics over the past few decades, a sizeable…

Statements of learning objectives are provided to substantiate the goal of economic understanding in Wisconsin schools and to provide a quick inquiry device that educators and others may use to more clearly establish whether or not opportunity for economic education exists sufficiently in the school curriculum. These statements, or…

This brief explores three examples of state policies designed to help students and families cope with rising tuition costs at four-year institutions: the Wisconsin Covenant, the Georgia HOPE Scholarship Program, and the Indiana Twenty-first Century Scholars Program. Although the authors acknowledge the important role two-year colleges play in…

Describes a project to revise "The Wisconsin Guide to Local Curriculum Improvement in Industrial Education, K-12", originally prepared in 1973. Four figures from the guide are included: (1) model of a field objective, (2) curriculum planning model, (3) instructional development process, and (4) process for developing objectives. (MF)

A perspective of state assessment, state goal-setting, and state standards adoption is presented. Relationships among these three concepts are noted and the relationship of all three to a system orientation is explored. The recent history of national and state assessment is documented. Attention is given in this historical overview to the manner…

A study examined (1) plans to pursue postgraduate training and degrees and fields of study, (2) whether perceived probability of pursuing training could be explained by a social psychological model, and (3) whether this model operated similarly at different points in pharmacy education. The model showed some predictive power. (MSE)

The nature and functions of pupil personnel servcies staff, together with a model of a typical pupil personnal services organization found effective in the public schools of Wisconsin, are presented. Salient features of the recommended model include: (1) services for all children; (2) direct line responsibility to the district administrators; (3)…

The purposes of the project were: (1) to determine if equality of educational opportunity exists for students in grades K-6 in the Rhinelander, Wisconsin, school district; and (2) to develop a model for elementary school program evaluation. Learner achievement of instructional objectives was accepted as the basic indicator of equality of…

The issue addressed is that of developing effective relationships between the schools and the community. The need for community involvement is explicated and the goals of community involvement are outlined. A theoretical basis for community involvement is presented, followed by the presentation of a model of home-school-community relationships.…

This booklet will help educators review, develop, and improve fundamental components of K-12 social studies programs. It is designed as a planning and implementation guide for social studies in Wisconsin. First, ways are suggested in which educators can define the purpose of their social studies programs and decide how to balance skills and…

This paper proposes a model for building pedagogical knowledge and improving teaching based on the practice of lesson study. In lesson study a small group of instructors jointly designs, teaches, studies and refines a single class lesson called a research lesson. We describe how college teachers can do lesson study in their classrooms. We explore…

Initially, Wisconsin Works (W-2) emphasized moving people from welfare to W-2 and employment. Eventually, recognition of the important role of education and training in moving families to self-sufficiency was renewed. The goal of W-2 is to connect its broad client population (only 17% of whom have a high school diploma) with appropriate work or…