Licensed family child care (FCC) programs serve millions of children and families annually and tend to serve more vulnerable families than center-based programs. Low-income families, families needing infant and toddler care, and families that are Hispanic or African American are more likely to place their children in FCC programs than in…

Literacy is an essential means of communication. It enables individuals, communities and institutions to interact, over time and across space, as they develop a web of social relations via language. Effective literacy policies, programmes and practices expand the scale of social communication and interaction. Thus, literacy thrives when a state of…

This issue of "Assessment Update" presents the following articles: (1) Origins of the WASC Assessment Leadership Academy; (2) Editor's Notes: Parallel Paths to Progress in Assessment in Europe and the United States; (3) The Impact of the First Three Years of the WASC Assessment Leadership Academy; (4) Restructuring the Writing Program at…

Since the 2004 reauthorization of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), there has been a growing focus on improving the quality of programs for children with disabilities and measuring the results/outcomes of those programs. Across the country, IDEA Part C Programs for Infants and Toddlers and IDEA Part B, Section 619 Preschool…

In 2009, families nationwide were surveyed to see how many children are in afterschool programs, how many are unsupervised after school and how these numbers compare to five years ago. "America After 3 PM" provides the most comprehensive and accurate picture to date of what this nation's youth are doing each day after school. Overall,…

Questions about the effectiveness of parent programs are addressed in this paper, which is based on the premise that an important step toward improvement is the identification and clarification of assumptions which prompt and sustain specific program structure and operations. Selected major assumptions about the ways in which programs attempt to…

Complete your review of where science education in the U.S. is heading with this wide-ranging look at secondary-level science curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Through lively examples of classroom practice, interviews with award-winning science teachers and science education experts, and a thorough review of the research, discover how…

The thesis of this paper is that vocational education and the persons it espouses to serve deserve the potential benefits of research and development which are not being maximized at the present time. Following a brief summary of vocational education legislation, the general efficiency and ability of the research and development program is…

This study identifies worldwide trends in environmental education (EE), and in light of these trends, suggests ways of improving EE training of primary school teachers. The study begins with a discussion of EE definitions, providing a South African definition and including a list of guiding principles for effective EE at schools/universities. The…

The achievements, problems, and potential of community education (CE) were the subject of a 1983 survey that reveals the views of local and national leaders involved with CE. Based on an extensive literature review, a survey of seven open-ended questions was constructed. One hundred sixty-two respondents nationwide who are CE…

This article notes that there are more issues and problems than positive programmatic trends; it looks at eight major challenges that U.S. schools of education must overcome if they are to become professional schools, analyzing where teacher education currently is vis-a-vis the challenges. (SM)

An evaluation is presented of the adequacy and effectiveness of the vocational education program delivery systems in the State of North Carolina assisted under the Carl D. Perkins Vocational Education Act (VEA) and under the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA). Evaluation was conducted through analysis of seven reports issued by various state…

Since the early 1980s, blue ribbon commissions and task forces have focused their attention upon identifying problems and suggesting solutions to shortcomings within the public educational system. Some of the questions that can be raised include the following: (1) Who are these citizens interested in educational practices? (2) What solutions have…

The Adult Education and Literacy System (AELS) has been systematizing and promoting adult education in the United States since 1966, when the Adult Education Act (AEA) was passed. Today, some 4,000 organizations operate under the rules and regulations of the latest reauthorization of the AEA, the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA).…

The Responsive College Programme is a centrally funded and organized activity encompassing a varied range of 10 local projects in England from whose experience it is hoped to obtain lessons for public sector education and training. The central/local nature of the enterprise imposes both the necessity of operating within broad, general constraints…