This manual presents 15 Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) tools and techniques necessary for effective teaching. By using the tools and techniques of CQI, teachers will be able to help themselves and their students to focus on the classroom processes. This will permit the teacher and students to plan, organize, implement, and make decisions…

This digest presents the main elements of a regional seminar held in Sucre, Bolivia, to analyze and assess basic education and literacy programs that have been implemented in Latin America and the Caribbean. In addition to UNICEF and UNESCO officials, some 36 experts from 11 countries participated in the meeting. Although the initial aim of the…

This 2-year status report focuses on the implementation in Maine of the recommendations of two reports--the report of the Commissioner's Task Force to Study Secondary Vocational Education in Maine and Commissioner Eve Bither's response to the report. New initiatives, now being implemented at many sites throughout the state, are designed to enhance…

Humanities courses have often been given little attention in continuing education for adults, possibly because they have been viewed as not "practical" or not "job-oriented" enough in our career-oriented, technologically advanced society. However, the humanities should be an integral part of our culture and of the lives of…

A three-stage, computer-assisted distance education (CADE) project was undertaken to design a prototype of CADE that would improve the two-way communication in correspondence education in three respects: (1) the quality of the tutors' comments as to feedback effectiveness and motivational aspects, (2) the turn-round time of students' solutions to…

Two-year colleges' staff development practices are examined so as to highlight issues, concerns, and problems; outline possible solutions; and offer alternative models. A brief review of the topical literature opens the report, followed by discussion of the "Change Agent Study" (Rand Corporation's four-year study of federally funded programs to…

The paper provides a brief survey of the rationale for and problems associated with performance-based teacher education (PBTE). Reviewing the research and activities of the Center for Vocational and Technical Education (Ohio State), the document identifies five elements that appear to distinguish PBTE from more traditional programs. These elements…

The Behavior Analysis (BA) approach to Project Follow Through, a federally funded education intervention program, has reversed the trend of academic failure of poor children by improving the educational experience of poor children from 12 communities in the urban East, Midwest, rural South, and on Indian reservations in the West. The BA model is…

This comprehensive study evaluates the ESEA Title III Regional Planning and Evaluation Agencies in the State of California. The study is prepared and reported in two volumes: One evaluating the 21 Projects to Advance Creativity in Education (PACE) Centers and the other evaluating the 10 Regional Educational Data Processing (EDP) Centers. Analysis…

The role of evaluation in a working model for the diffusion of educational innovations is the central topic of this paper. The working model is a product of the Trent Valley Centre (TVC), a "regional laboratory" type extension center of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. The first objective of the program is to generate the…

While researchers continue to debate teacher qualifications, explore how to get more qualified teachers into urban schools serving low-income students, or try to determine whether teachers who are successful with middle-class students would also be successful with pupils in low-income urban schools, one practicable idea can easily be overlooked.…

Project Vision was undertaken by the Pennsylvania State University Commonwealth Campus System (which includes 18 different campuses across Pennsylvania) to explore the potential of interactive instructional technology. Three campuses were chosen to participate, each of which selected a librarian, three faculty, and 20 incoming freshman students.…

A 1-year project conducted by Elgin Community College (ECC) with the cooperation of Illinois School District #300 accomplished the following: (1) developed a curriculum to meet business and industry needs; (2) strengthened basic skills instruction in mathematics, science, and computers; (3) developed a 3-2-2 program allowing high school seniors to…

This is the first of several papers developed from a faculty and student perspective describing a new distance learning (DL) model. Integral to the model are four interrelated families of multi-variant issues, referred to here as (a) the academic divide, (b) student misalignment, (c) administrative influences, and (d) the use of student…

This paper analyzes a research project that maps implementation efforts of comprehensive and mandated change at the primary school level in The Netherlands. In examining this large-scale national reform program, the report deals with schools whose innovation efforts acquired funding from the central education department in return for their local…