Charged with their own planning and development activities, developing nations have amassed a record of failed undertakings. In this category is Trinidad and Tobago's policy for "de-shifting" its bisessional schools to serve only one group of pupils daily. Experiences with "war on poverty" programs indicates that implementation…

Critics of outcomes-based education and proponents of vouchers, school choice, creationism, and tax limitation measures often seem to be advocating publicly funded private education. School leaders attempting to implement OBE or other improvement programs should describe programs properly, involve the community, develop and implement a…

Describes how the Orange County (Florida) Library System separated walk-in and phone-in reference services. Discusses telephone reference services, the Quest Line database, staffing and resources, results, and keys to success. Includes the Quest Line work flow chart. (PEN)

Addresses curriculum and course design by organizing some important considerations of elementary school history and social-science study into a three-step plan for implementation that discusses the selection and organization of topics, their classroom presentation, and the resources available to help align the elementary curriculum with the…

Examines the limits of what constitutes "school improvement." Critically assesses whether large-scale reorganization initiatives in two (British) local education agencies embody elements of a school-improvement initiative. Policy makers could maximize such initiatives' potential by incorporating a school-improvement focus into their…

The behavior-audit concept was developed in 1992 to help teachers organize their thoughts, beliefs, and concerns before a seriously disturbed student returned from an off-campus setting. Over 100 Minnesota schools and districts have conducted behavior audits to get fundamental agreement on what works or needs improvement in student behavior. (MLH)

Examines issues in monitoring students' growth and performance as they progress through a training program. These include ensuring faculty and advisor access to evaluation information; demonstrating student growth while remediating weaknesses; and tracking trends in student work. A model for developing a continuous assessment project at one…

Summarizes ongoing economic impact assessment activities at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for its Measurement and Standards Laboratory Program. Explores designing economic impact studies for integration into assessments of broader programmatic objectives. (SLD)

Although educational improvements have occurred over the past 30 years, few have had optimal effects. Three functional areas (teacher-organization-intervention) jointly influence an innovation's success. Realization of innovations appears to be more influenced by subjective experiences and culturally bound opinions than by well-managed…

Examines the implementation of quality programs in four organizations; the communication used to introduce the programs and to encourage employees to participate; and employees' perceptions of the programs, implementation activities, and change agents. Presents four key themes that emerged: creating and communicating vision; sensemaking and…

Study of the implementation of management National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) in three British organizations identified problems with the competency-based format. Although NVQs are supposedly based on actual workplace practice, candidates work toward criteria that may not match roles and responsibilities and developmental work is…

Explores aspects of implementing an elementary professional development school (PDS) with a faculty of 80 teachers over a 1-year period. Findings of this ethnographic case study report the visions of teachers in this PDS, the processes that impacted the sharing of teachers' visions, and the PDS efforts that encouraged teachers to explicate and…

Addresses the changing nature of Catholic schools, emphasizing, however, the core beliefs of Catholicism that have remained the same throughout. Focuses on the implementation by Catholic schools of three goals: enthusiasm, invitation, and witness of Catholicism. (YKH)

Discusses three areas essential in reporting on school improvement plans: process, which refers to the legitimacy of procedures used to assess the improvement plan; equity, pertaining to methods that show both low- and high-achieving students benefiting from the plan; and reporting, which refers to clarity of presentation. (JDI)

Examines the trend to use person-centered planning (PCP) in the provision of services to people with developmental disabilities. Reviews the history of this approach and warns that the implementation of PCP will be disappointing if the procedure is applied rigorously without regard for the context of relationships and agreements necessary for it…