This qualitative study includes focus group research involving 99 experienced community partners across eight California communities using community-based research techniques to capture community voices about their service-learning partnerships with different colleges and universities. Partners commented on their perspectives regarding…

The transition from the primary to secondary phase of education has been highlighted as an area of concern for policy makers, educators and researchers alike in recent years. In particular, there is evidence to suggest that it is during this crucial phase of compulsory education that many pupils are at risk of becoming marginalized and…

Researchers conducted focus groups in three Minnesota Head Start programs that provide full-day services. The purpose of this descriptive study was to understand how these programs operated, the strengths and challenges of full-day Head Start programs, and how working parents and those on public assistance described these services. Findings…

In September 2003, Hudson High School in Hudson, Massachusetts launched two new civic development efforts--clustering and schoolwide governance--and moved into a new building designed to facilitate them. Clustering is designed to achieve a sense of community within a large school by creating small communities of 100 to 150 students. To create…

In response to research indicating that Asian Pacific American (APA) students were considerably more dissatisfied with programs and services than any other ethnic group, Rancho Santiago Community College (RSCC), in California, conducted a series of focus group interviews with APA students to determine their characteristics and motivations. All…

This final report describes the activities and accomplishments of a 3-year model demonstration early intervention network serving infants who are deaf-blind and their families. The primary goal of the project was to build the capacity of early intervention programs. Sixteen early intervention programs participated in at least one component of the…

Case studies of focus groups as a useful educational research strategy for evaluating noninstructional interventions are described. Focus groups were used to evaluate the effectiveness of programs in the following Virginia school settings: (1) peer counseling programs in 4 high schools with 49 student counselors; (2) gifted programs in 7…

The purpose of this paper is to present findings from a program evaluation conducted to examine the effectiveness of the Schools Attuned program in a north Texas school district. Schools Attuned was developed by a professor of pediatrics, Dr. Mel Levine (2002), as a professional development model to train teachers to identify cognitive and…

This book helps educators produce assessments of their schools' drug and violence prevention programs. It contains over 30 separate resources that can be adapted to specific evaluations (e.g., sample youth and adult participant feedback sheets, sample classroom observation sheets and teacher implementation logs, sample en-route participant…

Program accountability is increasingly important in teacher education. Yet, program accountability often implies reporting quantitative data in an easy-to-understand visual format. Such data can lack validity when numbers are small and they may confuse issues of candidate performance with candidate understanding. In this study, four teacher…

This study investigated the impact of a three-week pilot practicum experience in an Aquarium setting on secondary pre-service biology teachers' epistemologies and pedagogies of teaching and learning. A qualitative case study methodology was employed to examine the experiences, views of teaching and learning, and teaching development of a small…

Background: The states of Maine and Pennsylvania support 1:1 laptop programs in which every student is provided with a personal computer. Many other states, districts, and schools also have full or pilot 1:1 laptop programs. Purpose: As 1:1 laptop programs grow in number and size, more information is needed about the impacts on teaching, learning,…

Public schools are under increased pressure to implement evidence-based substance abuse prevention programs. A number of model programs have been identified, but little research has examined the effectiveness of these programs when "brought to scale" or implemented district-wide. The current paper summarizes the application of the Adelman and…

Interest in home-school communication has paid little attention, to date, to the experiences of English as a second language (ESL) parents. This article examines recent Chinese immigrant parents' and Canadian teachers' perspectives of ESL learning presented at Parents' Night. On the basis of observations of three annual Parents' Nights, interviews…

This report describes results of focus group evaluation of the first year of Georgia's CrossRoads program, an alternative public school program to provide chronically disruptive, committed, and/or non-attending students (grades 6-12) with the social services and individualized instruction they require and to make the public schools more secure by…