To develop a college-wide resolution process for dealing with student concerns, Burlington County College, in New Jersey, undertook a planning effort involving the faculty, student, staff, and administrator senates in the college's governance system. Rather than appoint an administrator to lead the project, a member of the staff senate was…

The 1995 National Household Education Survey (NHES:95) was a random digit dial telephone survey of households developed by the National Center for Education Statistics. The NHES:95 included two topical survey components: the Adult Education component, which collected information about adults' participation in adult education, and the Early…

As part of a graduate research course, nine students formed a research team to carry out all aspects of a multimethod research study, including design, data collection and analysis, interpretation, and presentation of results in a final evaluation report to a local school corporation. Benefits and challenges were noted by both the instructor and…

Significant change in curriculum also affects other facets of schooling, including teaching, learning, and the school culture. The Curriculum Reform Project explored the nature of various curricular reforms, the barriers to reform, and the means by which selected schools met challenges and achieved positive change. The 4-year research project…

This collection of 21 suggested outcome measures for early childhood intervention services is intended to apply to all types of service and support program models for children (birth to age 5) with various developmental delays and/or disabilities. The measures are appropriate for either home-based or center-based service delivery models. Section 1…

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) conducts a unified set of surveys that facilitates comparison between public and private schools, school districts, and administrator data. The integrated set of surveys is called the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). A Teacher Followup Survey (TFS) is conducted a year after the SASS survey to…

This monograph contains three structured interview guides for interviewing principals, parents, and community leaders regarding gifted education as part of the needs assessment process under the Javits Grant Program. Many of the interview questions are multiple choice and all questions also solicit comments. The first interview is for building…

Developing a vision of the future and deciding how an organization will look and function in that future are essential ingredients of planning for organizational success. This handbook offers tools for strategic planning and conducting needs-assessment studies. Chapter 1 describes societal changes in the United States and its impact on education.…

The California Community Colleges (CCC) has implemented a prototype model for determining student transfer readiness as a primary means of assessing community college transfer effectiveness. This report provides definitions of transfer readiness and guidelines for colleges participating in the CCC transfer readiness study. First, a memorandum from…

Recent calls for collaborative efforts appear to be aimed at universities doing a better job at supporting school-improvement efforts. This paper describes outcomes of a project in which university faculty supported and trained local administrators and teachers at one school in the use of collaborative action research to improve teaching and…

This report evaluates the degree to which current assessment practices and programs include students with disabilities. It notes the difficulty of accurately determining the participation of students with disabilities in large-scale assessment programs due to a lack of data, differing definitions of eligible testing populations, and the…

The Common Core of Data (CCD) is the primary database of the National Center for Education Statistics on elementary and secondary education in the United States. CCD is a comprehensive, annual, national statistical database of all elementary and secondary schools and school districts. It contains data that are comparable across all states, and all…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is an ongoing, congressionally mandated national survey of the knowledge, skills, and understanding of young Americans in major subjects usually taught in school. This document is a guide to the files of the first NAEP Trial State Assessment (1990). The Trial State Assessment collected…

In 1988, the United States Congress passed legislation that created the School Dropout Demonstration Assistance Program (SDDAP). The program provides funding for local educational agencies, community-based organizations, and educational partnerships to establish effective programs. This report, the second of two volumes, presents statistical data…

This activity guide, developed to provide hands-on environmental education activities geared to Singletary Lake State Park in North Carolina, is targeted for grades 6, 7, and 8 and meets curriculum objectives of the standard course of study established by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. Three types of activities are included:…