This handbook is designed to help community-based organizations that provide adult education improve their program quality in order to better achieve results that matter. The target audience for this handbook includes administrators and other members of program improvement teams in community-based organizations that want to use Equipped for the…

The U.S. Department of Education's Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) is undertaking a major initiative to substantially redesign its program monitoring and improvement system. The overriding goal is to improve vocational rehabilitation (VR) services and employment outcomes for individuals with disabilities through the development of a…

This guide is designed to support the self-evaluation procedures of public colleges in Quebec, Canada, offering a Social Sciences program. First, the guide presents evaluation topics for the revised Social Sciences program and proposed evaluation criteria and sub-criteria. Areas to be evaluated are listed under the headings "program…

Based on the view that the single most important goal of Head Start reauthorization legislation should be to improve Head Start and other preschool programs to better ensure that participating children are prepared to succeed in school, this paper describes the limited educational progress for children in Head Start and problems resulting from a…

This report evaluates special education program expansion in the Saginaw (Michigan) school district with federal funding under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The program expansion involved: employment of 16 special education certified teachers to teach students with learning disabilities (LD), emotional impairments (EI), and…

Describes a study examining the attitudes of K-12 educators toward their state's North Central Association (NCA) and its future. Indicates that external peer reviews were cited as the most valuable programs, while many suggestions for the future were related to the NCA-university connection, emphasizing a dynamic role for universities serving as…

A study of program review at 156 community colleges shows that it is widely used for accountability and program improvement; that substantial use is made of results; and that key leadership support, organizational communication, a clear understanding of purposes, and frequent action on program review recommendations at all organizational levels…

Discusses the commonality of administrative issues facing undergraduate psychology departments and how consultants respond to these issues. Analyzes 20 department evaluations done by consultants. Most issues and recommendations fall into three categories: requirements for the major, physical and financial resources, and curriculum objectives. (MJP)

Objectives: To provide recommendations that will build a better foundation for research on youth smoking cessation. Methods: The Youth Tobacco Collaborative Cessation panel evaluated youth tobacco cessation literature and convened meetings to reach consensus. Results: Methodological issues include design, recruitment and retention, follow-up,…

This article aims to share experience from a Swedish project on the introduction and implementation of Open Educational Resources (OER) in higher education with both national and international perspectives. The project, "OER--resources for learning", was part of the National Library of Sweden Open Access initiative and aimed at exploring, raising…

Student retention is an ongoing concern of many postsecondary institutions (Kuh, 2008). Student engagement might be a key to addressing retention issues in terms of building relationships between students and their college. One technical college has found that attrition in learning support math courses contributes greatly to the overall college…

This article reports the results of a quantitative matching study investigating the impact on first-year students of a two-semester learning community. Results indicate a statistically significant association between LEAP participation and academic performance measured by retention, GPA, and time to graduation. Participation was associated with…

The aim of this paper is to assess the impact the Advanced Certificate in Education (ACE) in-service technology training program has on technology teachers' knowledge and understanding of technology. The training of technology teachers is an initiative toward teachers' professional development within the mathematics, science, and technology sphere…

The "Higher Education Reconciliation Act of 2005" created two new grant programs for undergraduates: the Academic Competitiveness Grant (ACG) program and National Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent (National SMART) Grant program. The ACG program is intended to encourage students to take challenging courses in high school and thus…

This descriptive study investigated the benefits and costs of using electronic portfolios (EPs) in preservice teacher education. Grounded within change theory, the study examined the perspectives of faculty in six programs in which EPs have been used on a large scale for two or more years. Benefits identified include increased opportunities for…