Research has shown that while the number of school-age children has steadily increased over time, the number of qualified teachers available to educate them has not matched this need. This topical brief shows the percentage of public schools across the nation with teaching vacancies and summarizes strategies implemented in Region 5 Comprehensive…

In 2019, the Texas legislature passed a historic education finance bill that included an initiative to add up to 30 days to the school-year calendar. One way districts can do this is to offer a voluntary summer learning program. In 2020, the American Institutes for Research, with support from The Wallace Foundation, launched the six-year Texas…

For many educational organizations, ensuring students have a positive experience and feel cared for by their degree program faculty is necessary for recruitment and retention, which can be especially important in challenging doctoral programs. Making information easily accessible and up-todate on the website, including the necessary forms, is a…

For many non-traditional candidates, the path into teaching is riddled with bumps and detours. They must pay for increasingly expensive coursework and certification costs, attend classes that conflict with work schedules, and forgo wages to complete unfunded student teaching requirements. These roadblocks can deter valuable local…

"The Mentoring Toolkit 2.0: Resources for Developing Programs for Incarcerated Youth" provides information, program descriptions, and links to important resources that can assist juvenile correctional facilities and other organizations to design effective mentoring programs for neglected and delinquent youth, particularly those who are…

In an era of increasingly hyped Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) that seem to evoke feelings of both promise and peril for higher education, many institutions are struggling to find their niche among top-tier Ivy League schools offering courses to thousands of participants for free. While the effectiveness of MOOCs in terms of learning outcomes…

National studies reveal that 50 percent to 70 percent of community college students are required to take developmental, or remedial, math courses upon enrollment, and only 20 percent of developmental math students ever successfully complete a college-level math course. Taking up the challenge is the "New Mathways Project" (NMP),…

The Business-Higher Education Forum (BHEF) is committed to aligning education and the workforce to create the talent and capacity for innovation necessary to keep regions, states, and the nation economically competitive. As part of that work, BHEF strives to analyze the factors that contribute to effective business and higher education…

Revenues from oil/gas royalties on University of Texas (Austin) and Texas A&M go into a fund which is used to hire faculty and develop programs, particularly in the sciences. However, Texas legislators are considering a bill that would spread the oil money to other campuses in the Texas university system. (JN)

The overall objective of the project was to develop a model adaptable throughout Texas that would enable school districts to increase and maintain female enrollment in vocational programs that had traditionally been dominated by males. In meeting this overall objective, other secondary objectives also had to be met. These included providing…

Data are presented from an evaluation of state and federal adult basic education (ABE) programs in Texas. An introduction describes the methodology by which data were collected. The next three sections contain survey data from and about students, teachers, and administrators. Other sections examine the program planning process, management and…

Provisions of Title III of the Elementary and Secondary Act entitled "Adult Education Act of 1966" charge the Texas Education Agency with responsibility for state administration of adult basic education programs in accordance with a plan approved by the State Board of Education and the United States Commissioner of Education. As one…

Various aspects of program planning and implementation in the Texas Teacher Corps Network are explored. The following topics are covered: 1) program conceptualization and design; 2) intern and team leader recruitment; 3) Teacher Corps experiences dealing with graduate admission processes and their implications for change; 4) management of Teacher…

Public agencies conducting adult basic education in Texas are given guidelines in program planning, administration, supervision, funding, and evaluation. Such aspects as student eligibility, inservice teacher education, student recruitment and placement, organization of classes, selection of teachers and aides, use of counselors, reporting and…

Two separate research projects were undertaken in Georgia and Texas to examine the current and future needs of older adults for functional literacy and to analyze the involvement of adult basic education (ABE) programs to better serve those needs. The projects involved literature reviews; mail-out surveys; and one-on-one interviews with senior…