Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to show that most small business owner-managers are technically competent in their area of business activity however they do not always have equal managerial competence. For example, deficiency in human resource management competence may lead to difficulties in attracting, retaining or leading staff. These…

In 2005 the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions, the central organisation of unions in New Zealand, initiated a Learning Representatives Project based on the British model. The Government approved an eight-month programme to be funded through its Tertiary Education Commission to "scope the project". Work began not just on scoping, but on…

Due to the declining state of the current economy, a greater demand is being placed on student affairs professionals to provide evidence of the success of their programs, their impact on student learning and development and overall contributions to the undergraduate learning experience. It is a growing imperative that student affairs professionals…

This is the final report of the National Evaluation of Student Support Services (SSS). SSS is one of eight federally funded grant programs that are administered as part of the Federal TRIO Programs within the U.S. Department of Education (ED). The SSS program, in particular, focuses on students while they are enrolled in college. In general, SSS…

Educators have been looking for a solution to increasing yearly student achievement while at the same time ensuring that the achievement gap between students of high and low socioeconomic status does not continue to widen each year. Many studies examined show that students experience summer learning loss if not in school during the months of June…

This research was comprised of a case study conducted at Grand View University to determine faculty perceptions and perspectives of outcomes related to a Title III grant-funded, professional development program. The conceptual framework for the study was based on a systematic process called the logic model (W. K. Kellogg Foundation, 2004). A…

The purpose of this paper was to describe the process of development of assessment instruments for the Comparing Options in Secondary Mathematics: Investigating Curriculum (COSMIC) project. The COSMIC project was a three-year longitudinal comparative study focusing on evaluating high school students' mathematics learning from two distinct…

This is the first of two reports that summarize the findings from an impact evaluation of a violence prevention intervention for middle schools. This report discusses findings after 1 year of implementation. A forthcoming report will discuss the findings after 2 years and 3 years of implementation. In 2004, the U.S. Department of Education (ED)…

The Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) is a bold effort to create a network of charter schools designed to transform and improve the educational opportunities available to low/income families. KIPP schools seek to actively engage students and parents in the educational process, expand the time and effort students devote to their studies, reinforce…

This report addresses the following four questions by reporting on the impacts of Head Start on children and families during the children's preschool, kindergarten, and 1st grade years: (1) What difference does Head Start make to key outcomes of development and learning (and in particular, the multiple domains of school readiness) for low-income…

U.S. social programs, set up to address important problems, often fall short by funding specific models/strategies ("interventions") that are not effective. When evaluated in scientifically-rigorous studies, social interventions in K-12 education, job training, crime prevention, and other areas are frequently found ineffective or…

The Sloan Pillars have set the standard for university-wide online learning program assessment for more than a dozen years. In this paper, the authors propose the extension of the Pillars to corporate e-learning, offering an alternative to traditional enterprise learning assessments. Claiming that conventional methods stress individual courses or…

Most studies focus on the effects of charter attendance on short-term student achievement (test scores), using either data sets that follow students over time or random assignment via school admission lotteries to control for differences between students in charter and traditional public schools. Beyond measuring achievement effects, however,…

This study used a quasi-experimental research design to examine the impact of a professional learning program designed to enhance the competency of children with Autism, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Learning Disabilities and to develop knowledge, understanding and skills of teachers and parents in helping them. Data were collected…

Background: The literature contains very few studies that focused on evaluating the impact of professional development activities on student learning. And, many of these studies failed to determine whether the professional development activities met their primary goal--to improve the learning process. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to use…