Describes a new staff performance management system at Case Western Reserve University (Ohio). The system involves three easy-to-use performance management forms for supervisory, technical, and clerical staff employees. The forms serve as both evaluation and work planning tools for both raters and employees. During a two-year pilot period,…

The planning compass is a tool for analyzing priorities for health-promotion programs. It considers groups, settings, topics, and methodologies; it includes a planning checklist and operational plan. Nursing students were able to use the tool with minimal difficulty. (SK)

Examines the current understanding of the most promising and effective means of serving families. It highlights the family-centered service approach, explaining family support services and family preservation services. Evaluations of the two types of family-centered services are reviewed, and issues related to planning and service delivery are…

Explores how a program of strong construct validation could be applied to the assessment of the construct of test anxiety, paying special attention to substantive, structural, and external aspects of construct validation. A framework is proposed to pull together various statistical methods used in construct validation research into an organized…

The Learning Community is an integrated family services program in Michigan that supports personal, educational, and employment goals as defined by individual family members. It provides adults with opportunities to improve their academic and employment skills, find employment, enhance parenting skills, and promote the educational potential of…

Examines how a paradigm shift in education from a culture of production to one of consumption is evidenced in institutional policy and programmatic development at the University of South Australia. Focus is on the changing functions of the university's Flexible Learning Centre which focuses on new and flexible approaches to the delivery of…

Presents a rationale for including life planning in career guidance programs, describing how each of the following is served by life planning: counseling, assessment, credential portfolios, career and labor market information, employability skills, and work experience. Outlines elements of a comprehensive career and life planning program. (SK)

Describes several successful community-oriented primary care (COPC) projects conducted by the Health Partners Family Practice Residency Program and outlines eight lessons learned from these projects. The experiences of these projects show that COPC development is a long and slow process that provides many rewards during implementation. (SLD)

Highlights the roles and responsibilities that leaders must assume in administrating and guiding a character education program in a school or school district. Discusses some leadership strategies and concludes that without a strong leader, a character education program will fade away. (Author/JDM)

Revisits an April 2000 article questioning the relevance and efficacy of Instructional Systems Design (ISD) and comes back to the question of whether ISD is flawed or is the manner in which people are putting ISD into practice the problem. (JOW)

Presents five steps to develop sustainable community programs: (1) grant writing and planning; (2) program startup; (3) plan refinement; (4) program expansion and improvement; and (5) program transitions and sustainability. Describes the critical tasks, skills, core questions, and feedback loops essential at each stage. (SK)

Discusses the effectiveness of mentoring programs in reducing the dropout rate and helping students avoid drugs and alcohol. Describes Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America, the nation's oldest and largest youth mentoring program. Includes 16 steps for setting up a school-based mentoring program. (JOW)

Articulates how the family support movement emerged in the last 20 years, and describes the philosophical premises, principles, and practices that currently guide it. Considers the inability of current family support program typologies to guide outcome evaluations, and introduces a typology that deconstructs family support programs into their…

An appropriate education is one that identifies students' educational needs and then provides a curriculum that addresses those needs (Benbow & Stanley, 1996). All students, even those identified as gifted, deserve a personalized education. However, many educators outside gifted education believe that "giftedness" is a fancy label and that gifted…

Describes the development of the International Development Evaluation Association (IDEAS) and the context in which it will operate. This new wing of the international evaluation architecture has been designed to support development evaluators in tackling professional changes of the new century. (SLD)