Professional development that improves teaching and student learning meets research-based standards to ensure high-quality educator learning experiences. Since the quality of professional learning affects its results, many states, districts, and schools want to measure the effectiveness of their professional development to make targeted…

We study how the employment effects of enterprise zones vary with their location, implementation, and administration, based on evidence from California. We use new establishment-level data and geographic mapping methods, coupled with a survey of enterprise zone administrators. Overall, the evidence indicates that enterprise zones do not increase…

Outlines considerations for program managers working with volunteers who have disabilities: accessibility of facilities; potential pitfalls; teamwork; placement; problem resolution; and communication with other staff. (SK)

This article introduces the special issue of "Prospects" on "Aid effectiveness in education". It brings together case studies of attempts in several very different contexts to improve the effectiveness of the use of aid in the education sector. By drawing on the historical evolution of the new paradigm over the last 20 years, the authors make the…

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University--Worldwide serves more than 36,000 online students across the globe, many of whom are military and other non-traditional students, offering 34 undergraduate, graduate, and professional education/workforce certificate programs, presented both online and via blended delivery modes. The centralized model of online…

Transformation Education, an organizational philosophy and operating system, is designed to increase service quality and effectiveness of group care through aligning its organizational structure with its purpose. This alignment is achieved through creating a culture designed to dispense transformation rather than treatment. The author presents how…

This document is intended to assist State Education Agency (SEA) and Lead Agency (LA) staff and technical assistance providers in designing a meaningful evaluation for the State Performance Plan (SPP)/Annual Performance Report (APR) improvement activities. It provides: (1) information about the relevance of evaluation in the context of improvement…

The National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) is the U.S. Government's crosscutting program that coordinates Federal research and development (R&D) activities in nanoscale science, engineering, technology, and related efforts among various participating agencies. The Federal Government launched the NNI in FY 2001 with an initial $500 million…

Established in 1940, Lady Gowrie Child Centres in Australia provide integrated early childhood programs and develop and share project work, information, resources and training at local and national levels. While changes in social policy compromised their provision of integrated programs, the centre in Adelaide has made real strides towards moving…

Although each higher education institutional research office has a unique style and mission, their commonalities suggest guidelines for establishing effective units, including placement high in the organizational structure, consistent attention given to first-order data responsibilities (collection, reporting), attention to institutional needs, a…

Louisiana concentrates its postsecondary financial aid funding in merit-based aid programs, as opposed to need-based aid programs. This study illuminates the distribution of Louisiana's merit-based financial aid program, Louisiana's Tuition Opportunity Program for Students (TOPS), to students from difference socioeconomic backgrounds by describing…

The primary form of experiential education in political science is an internship in a government office. Too often, however, with little actual monitoring of their experiences, government interns become little more than classic office "gofers." Fortunately, there are strategies to make political internships not only useful learning experiences for…

Describes the operation and effectiveness of the Alternative Learning Center program administered by James Madison Memorial High School in Madison (Wisconsin). The center permits the school to remove students committing breaches of school discipline from their classes without removing them from the educational environment altogether. (PGD)

Tuition prepayment is not a panacea for rising college costs. States are treating symptoms and not causes through such programs. Rather than adopting prepayment plans wholesale, state governments need to determine whether the risk to the state and institutions is justifiable by thoroughly analyzing the program's viability. (MSE)