Properly conceived and implemented new initiatives are essential to improving schools and communities. Such new initiatives usually are pursued as projects, pilots, or demonstrations, with temporary funding and staffing. When the funding ends, more often than not much of what has been developed disappears. Sometimes this is appropriate (e.g., when…

Vocational and technical training in Singapore has a relatively short history. Only after Singapore became independent did the need to formalize a national system of training to support the labor force needs of industrialization become evident. Singapore's first vocational institute was established in 1964. The system has experienced several…

The Assessment Tools for Adult Education project was designed to provide training and support to staff of the Pennsylvania Bureau of Adult Basic and Literacy Education (ABLE) funded programs to help them use assessment tools and procedures to document the learning gains of the adult students they serve. The following candidate assessment…

This book, which is intended as a practical guide to functional literacy at the grassroots level, addresses a range of issues encountered by literacy workers when mobilizing, planning, teaching, supervising, and evaluating adult literacy programs. The following topics are discussed: adult literacy, literacy teachers, and literacy work; the many…

This document presents and examines Iowa's adult basic education (ABE) program benchmarks, which have been designed as criteria for evaluating the following aspects of the performance of ABE programs in Iowa's community colleges: educational gains; program planning; curriculum/instruction; staff development; support services; and…

This document explains the concept of sectoral employment strategies and profiles 13 successful work force development programs based on such strategies. The first half of the document examines the increasing need for sectoral employment strategies and their key characteristics, role in achieving systemic change in work organizations, and…

In 1992, the U.S. Department of Labor and Council of Chief State School Officers awarded grants for the development of statewide systems to enhance school-to-work transition (SWT) through youth apprenticeship in eight states: California, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Oregon, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. In June 1993, the programs were…

During 1987, the Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment System (CASAS) focused its evaluation efforts on 12 major categories: exit level, placement, survey achievement, staff development, special education, linking assessment to instruction, adult basic education and high school diploma programs, recordkeeping, employability, guidance, goal…

The Instructional Systems Development (ISD) approach for the accomplishment of vocational training programs provides a methodology for gathering and analyzing job information, for developing instructional materials and media, for conducting instruction, and for evaluating and improving the effectiveness of training programs. Included in the ISD…

The Alberta Vocational Center (AVC) developed a portable competency-based learning system for use in non-institutional adult basic education community programs. The system addresses needs identified by the 1971 census which found 28% of Alberta's residents (over fifteen and out of school) had less than a ninth grade education. Administered through…

This document is a compilation of papers on adult basic education in corrections presented at eight seminars held for decision makers in corrections. (The seminars provided training in the systems approach for planning and evaluating adult basic education programs for adult offenders in correctional institutions.) The first section focuses on the…

A program to establish and maintain a network of high-quality home care providers to serve Middle Tennessee was designed and implemented. The program consisted of onsite training for home care providers and a support system to promote their professional development. The onsite training was delivered through 2-hour visits during which trainers and…

This book outlines the principles of planning, implementing, and evaluating successful professional meetings and conferences in education. The following are among the topics discussed: (1) the knowledge base of effective meetings and conferences (nine principles held by effective meeting designers; characteristics of effective meetings and…

Three papers present examples of strategies used by developing institutions and historically black colleges to strengthen computer technology programs. "Promoting Industry Support in Developing a Computer Technology Program" (Albert D. Robinson) describes how the Washtenaw Community College (Ann Arbor, Michigan) Electrical/Electronics…

This position paper describes Indiana's research goals and efforts to develop a student-centered, industry-referenced approach to performance based vocational education (PBVE) programs and curricula. The introductory section traces the state's efforts to establish priorities and systematically develop performance based programs and describes…