Today, the media, policy makers, educators, and parents are all talking about abstinence. Unfortunately, these groups often do not define the term or assume a singular, limited definition. However, each group and possibly each individual have a different definition of the word. In this environment of confusion and miscommunication, it is essential…

The 1984 edition of Webster's Collegiate Dictionary defines technology as "a scientific method of achieving a particular purpose" (p. 176). The meaning of the word "technology," however, is relative to the context and time period in which it is used. An additional characterization of technology, written 36 years ago in the American Heritage…

Difficulties are outlined in how to consider whether boys and girls have distinctive approaches and needs in relation to spiritual development, especially the lack of any agreed definition of spiritual development and the nature of the research literature relating to gender. I explore this without presupposing, or excluding, any particular…

Documenting treatment integrity is an important issue in research and practice in any discipline concerned with prevention and intervention. However, consensus concerning the dimensions of treatment integrity and how they should be measured has yet to emerge. Advances from three areas in which significant treatment integrity work has taken…

The concept of treatment integrity cuts across a diversity of fields involved with providing treatments or interventions to individuals. In medical treatments, the concept of "treatment compliance" or "treatment adherence" is an important and problematic issue. In the field of nutrition, the concept of "dietary adherence" is important for…

During the 2009-2010 school year, Marzano Research Laboratory (MRL) was commissioned by Promethean Ltd. to conduct a second year evaluation study of the effects of Promethean ActivClassroom on student academic achievement. This report describes the findings from the second year study along with aggregate findings from the first and second year…

Faculty workload can be separated into two distinct areas: instructional workload (i.e. in-class workload) and out-of-classroom activities. This indicates that at the universities, the state college, and the community colleges the role of full-time faculty extends well beyond classroom instruction. To varying degrees, faculty workload is impacted…

"Excellence" has been a prevalent term in New Labour rhetoric on education, most notably in the stated goal of "excellence for all" in education. Despite that, the meaning of the term has remained imprecise, and the implications of universal excellence unclear. In this paper, three distinct definitions of excellence are…

The school year 1991-92 was the first in which states reported school district level data on the numbers and types of dropouts in the Common Core of Data (CCD) Agency Universe Survey. Information included numbers of male and female dropouts in 5 racial/ethnic categories for grades 7 through 12. The CCD defined a dropout as a student who had been…

This paper explores the issue of how quality in early childhood services is defined and evaluated and examines some of the implications of working within a particular paradigm at a European level. The discussion begins with the concept of early childhood services, and how the approach to defining quality relates closely to the concept of service.…

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is intended to protect employees' job and health benefits while they are on leave for certain family and health needs. This publication provides, in question-answer format, a description of the rights and obligations of employees and employers as stipulated by the FMLA. The report focuses on the requirements…

This handbook is an effort to establish current and consistent terms, definitions, and classification codes to maintain, collect, report, and exchange comparable information about staff. This effort was coordinated by the Council of Chief State School Officers under contract to the National Center for Education Statistics. It represents the best…

This paper reviews the education of students with mental retardation in the United States and offers recommendations to improve their instruction. It begins by discussing the American Association on Mental Retardation's definition of mental retardation and incidence/prevalence data. Disagreements about the definition and incidence data are noted.…

This digest discusses factors affecting the achievement of gifted minority students, particularly Black students. Problems associated with underachievement definitions and the influence of social, cultural, and psychological factors on student achievement are examined. Suggestions and recommendations for reversing underachievement among gifted…

In 1989, the Transfer Assembly project was initiated by the Center for the Study of Community Colleges (CSCC) to determine the contribution of community colleges to students' progress towards baccalaureate degrees. In that year, 48 community colleges provided data on students, with transfers defined as students with no prior college experience who…