Recognizing that religion can positively transform people's lives and that churches and synagogues have altruistic members with diverse abilities, the Escambia County (Florida) School District created church care teams to work with special-needs families and their schools over an extended time. Positive changes in target families are already…

Examines the effectiveness of four Web-based search engines--Alta Visa, infoseek, Lycos, and Open Text--from users' perspectives. Results show that although Lycos has the best relevance ranking performance and highest precision ratio, Alta Vista has the best connectivity, highest user satisfaction ratios for precision and three components of…

Growing numbers of libraries are experimenting with a new form of interactive reference to extend service to their patrons at the point-of-need and time-of-need. Examines digital reference for the altered user culture and point-of-need service products. Describes a pilot project offering chat reference service. Discuses developing service…

Examined issues raised by pilot implementations of "Looking After Children" materials in social-work agencies in England, Canada, Australia, and Sweden. Found that implementation required major organizational change and new values and attitudes toward children in out-of-home care. Difficulties arose when management and monitoring systems…

A task force developed to examine solutions to declining student enrollments and student retention problems, recommended that the University of Oregon Library System develop library courses that address discipline-specific information needs in several library intensive courses, especially in journalism, management, psychology, and women's studies.…

Collaboration among various professional groups to enhance student learning is a very useful strategy. This article describes how one state, Minnesota, over time (1960-1990), employed collaboration among schools, universities, professional organizations, and the State Department of Education to affect student counseling practices where needed.…

This article describes the background and findings of a research project on school effectiveness and evaluation in one regional education authority in China. The study was the outcome of a China/UK academic link aiming to improve research capacity and the evaluation of educational quality in China, funded by the British Council in Beijing, on…

This article reports the findings of a mixed-method evaluation of a pilot educational programme undertaken with six to seven year olds in a sample of primary schools in England with the aim of increasing their awareness of and respect for diversity through theater, workshops and related teacher-led classroom activities. The qualitative feedback…

Miami Dade County Public Schools serves an international community with the highest poverty rate of any large U.S. city as well as the highest percentage of immigrants calling it "home" of any large city throughout the world. This article examines: (a) how Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS), the fifth largest school district in…

The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) has made no secret of its desire for teachers to introduce more creativity into UK classrooms. Imaginatively minded teachers have found a number of ways to introduce creativity into the classroom. Dance, music, problem solving and role-play exercises are all well trodden routes, but it was the…

Although extensive research has been carried out, describing the role of feedback in education, and many theoretical models are yet available, procedures and guidelines for actually designing and implementing feedback in practice have remained scarce so far. This explorative study presents a preliminary six-phase design model for feedback…

The ECFMG[R] Clinical Skills Assessment (CSA[R]) was developed to evaluate whether graduates of international medical schools (IMGs) are ready to enter graduate training programs in the United States. The patient note (PN) exercise is specifically used to assess a candidate's ability to summarize and synthesize the data collected in a simulated…

Teacher education programs that want their future teachers to embrace and employee constructivist principles must strive to provide opportunities for teacher candidates to develop an understanding of constructivism. The paper presents a structure for embedding constructivist principles into early childhood and elementary teacher education courses…

This paper examines the reasons that physical education teachers exhibited caring behaviors during teaching. Four physical education teachers, identified as caring physical education teachers, were formally and informally interviewed and observed teaching. Data were analyzed using content analysis and inductive coding, and three themes emerged.…

This paper reports on findings from an evaluation of a pilot accreditation scheme for teachers of sex and relationships education (SRE) in England. The scheme was introduced as part of national measures to reduce rates of teenage conception. Illuminative and participatory methods were used to elicit stakeholder accounts from primary, secondary and…