In this article, the author talks about program evaluation, a strategy commonly used by instructional leaders that can help school business officials improve their budget process. As districts struggle to develop budgets in these challenging economic times, school business officials might consider turning to program evaluation for help. Program…

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the effect of micro-teaching practices with concrete models on the pre-service teachers' self-efficacy beliefs about using concrete models and to determine the opinions of the pre-service teachers about this issue. In the current study, one of the mixed methods, the convergent design (embedded)…

Parent involvement is a predictor of postsecondary education and employment outcomes, but rigorous measures of parent involvement for youth with disabilities are lacking. Hirano, Garbacz, Shanley, and Rowe adapted scales based on Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler model of parent involvement for use with parents of youth with disabilities aged 14 to 23.…

Many speech and language therapy (SLT) services have limited capacity for providing school-based input. Some offer commissioned SLT input, to enhance the service provided by the UK National Health Service (NHS), giving schools the option to increase the amount and scope of SLT intervention. This two-tiered model of service provision is relatively…

Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) is a widely-used index of reading ability in early elementary grades; however, little information exists on predictive value of student characteristics on ORF scores (Wang, Algozzine, Ma, & Porfeli, 2011). A three-step sequential model was used to analyze the influence of student characteristics on scores (N = 2649)…

School consultation is practiced in rapidly changing educational settings, including increasing student diversity and the implementation of a multitiered system of supports. This changing context may shift the boundaries of what it means to consult and how best to achieve change through consultation. The purpose of this study was to explore how…

Executive skills are the cognitive abilities that make it possible for people to set goals, regulate impulses, and complete the steps necessary to achieve their objectives. Examples of these skills include time management, emotional control, and organization. Richard Guare and Peggy Dawson have developed a coaching strategy based on executive…

Charter schools--public schools that receive greater autonomy from district and state regulations in return for greater accountability--present opportunities to provide exemplary and innovative supports and services to students with disabilities. Charter schools' freedom to innovate enables them to create and offer new models and practices, much…

This case study explored teachers' concerns, use, and actual practices in their adoption of the Bring Your Own Technology (BYOT) initiative. Participants were 12 secondary teachers in a private school setting. The Concerns-Based Adoption Model tools provided data: Stages of Concern Questionnaire (SoCQ), Levels of Use interview, and the Innovation…

"The First-Year Seminar: Designing, Implementing, and Assessing Courses to Support Student Learning and Success," a five-volume series, is designed to assist educators who are interested in launching a first-year seminar or revamping an existing program. Each volume examines a different aspect of first-year seminar design or…

Preparing students to enter the field of psychology as competent professionals requires that multicultural practices be infused into all areas of training. This article describes how the Grand Rounds model was adapted to a graduate clinical psychology training program to foster applied learning in multicultural competence. This extension of Grand…

In this article, Philip DiSalvio, dean of the College of Advancing and Professional Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston, interviews Stephen Trachtenberg, president emeritus and University Professor of Public Service at George Washington University. Trachtenberg shares his views on the traditional four-year undergraduate degree, the…

This article details a collaborative project between the University of Strathclyde (UK) and the University of Herat (Afghanistan). The aim was to co-construct a model of training, based on humanistic approaches, in order to enhance counselling services in Afghanistan and to establish counselling training at the University of Herat. Two groups of…

The fiascoes that seem to accompany the annual publication of examination results in England, the subsequent inquiries instituted to ensure they "never happen again" and the Secretary of State's decision, reversed six months later because of fears about possible EU legal challenges, to "end competition between exam boards"…

The report is the project's first outcome, and provides an overview of quality tools, quality models and quality labels, currently in use in (professional) higher education. It is followed by a gap analysis as regards the Standards and Guidelines for quality assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG), and the identified characteristics…