The advent of schooling, the cash economy, and new political systems have brought about many situations providing challenges to the Samburu and the Turkana nomadic pastoralists in northern Kenya. This report details the experiences of the staff of the El-barta project in working with communities within a situation of isolation, harsh climatic…

This document, which is based on information gathered during a 1998 study of how study circle programs contribute to community problem solving, presents best practices for producing community-wide study circles. The best practices are illustrated through stories that are grouped into five sections on the following themes: (1) creating a…

This book presents case studies of two highly successful teacher education programs. It is part of a three-volume series that includes seven case studies. It documents the goals, strategies, content, and processes of teacher education programs that are widely acknowledged as exemplars for preparing prospective teachers to engage in skillful,…

Work requirements in welfare reform proposed by the George W. Bush administration would impose much tougher work requirements on welfare recipients. Seventy percent of all adults would be required to work 40 hours per week, versus the 50 percent who are required to work 30 hours per week currently. In addition, states would be given little leeway…

High/Scope preschool curriculum is a model for developing high-quality early childhood programs that encourage and support children's initiatives and active learning experiences. This revised manual for early childhood practitioners and students presents essential strategies adults can use to make active learning a reality in their programs. The…

This document explains how community work experience programs (CWEP) and publicly funded jobs (PFJ) can be used to help hard-to-serve welfare recipients meet the work requirements imposed by the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. The document begins with a brief overview of available options for helping hard-to-serve welfare…

This report highlights the steps that colleges and universities in Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) states are taking to reduce the need for remedial college courses, addressing the following issues: who needs remedial education; how many students entering college need remedial courses; whether state policies on college-level assessment…

The majority of employment and training programs are designed as one-size-fits-all, leaving approximately 85 percent of participants unsatisfied, unmotivated, or forced back into a job with no chance of advancement. In targeting a clientele of single parents and dislocated workers, an action research project, called Chance to Advance, conducted in…

Although early intervention programs have enjoyed popular and legislative support, little hard data exist on the long-term consequences of these efforts. This study examined the long-term effects of the Child-Parent Center (CPC) program in Chicago. Begun in 1967, the program operates out of 24 centers, located in proximity to the elementary…

This document contains three papers from a symposium on designing effective human resource development (HRD) programs that was conducted as part of a conference on HRD. "Leveraging System Factors for Increased Training Effectiveness" (David Ripley) is a conceptual paper that critiques current training design models and the lack of…

Australia's Framing the Future (FTF) project was designed to develop a model of staff development to support implementation of the National Training Framework (NTF). A survey of FTF project managers found these long-term impacts: implementation of training packages and other aspects of NTF, new forms of collaboration between industry and training…

These four papers are from a symposium on human resource development (HRD) in the United Kingdom. "HRD and Psychological Contracts: A Case Study of Lifelong Learning" (Graeme Martin, Judy Pate, Jim McGoldrick) explores the influence of a lifelong learning program on employee perceptions of their psychological contracts in a longitudinal…

This paper is based on a cross-sectional survey comparison of preparation experiences and outcomes using a sample of principals who completed one of five innovative leadership preparation programs between 2000-2005 and a national comparison sample of principals. The primary questions are: (1) How do innovatively-prepared principals and other…

This report summarizes the initial findings from the 2004-2005 evaluation study of the program titled Building Academic Vocabulary (BAV). The theory and research supporting the development of this program are articulated in "Building Background Knowledge for Academic Achievement" (Marzano, 2004). Briefly, the basic assumption underlying the BAV…

The Texas Study of Students at Risk (TxSSAR) is a comprehensive evaluation examining the effectiveness of three state-level programs with the common goal of helping students at risk of failure to achieve academically. The study comprises investigations of the Optional Extended Year Program (OEYP), the Texas After School Initiative (TASI), and the…