Potential first-generation students make up a large segment of Wisconsin's teenage population. To increase the pool of educated workers in Wisconsin, policymakers must work to recruit, retain, and graduate these students. Estimates of the size of the first-generation student population in the state are crucial for these efforts. This brief…

The selection of a superintendent is among the most significant decisions any school district board of directors will make. The superintendent should be the person and office through which the direction set by the board is carried out. The working relationship that develops between the board and superintendent is thus absolutely critical and the…

The campus tour is one of the most effective recruitment tools for higher education institutions, impacting prospective students' perceptions of college choice decision criteria, including academic quality. This study examined the impact of sharing academic success stories during the tour on prospective students' perceptions of academic quality,…

Leading intellectual figures in the school reform movement, all of them favoring approaches centered around the value of competition and choice, outline different visions for the goal of choice-oriented educational reform and the best means for achieving it. This volume takes the reader inside the movement to empower parents with choice, airing…

This paper presents the highlights of the Special Education Faculty Needs Assessment Study (SEFNA). Actions taken after the release of The 2001 Faculty Shortage Study demonstrate that supply-and-demand imbalances can be improved. The projected shortage of special education faculty will directly and negatively affect students with disabilities and…

The continuing shortfall in recruitment to Psychiatry is examined with suggestions for affirmative action. Recruitment may improve in the near future because of the high demand for psychiatrists, the incentives offered, greater competition for other specialties and a pool of international graduates willing to work in Psychiatry. There remains the…

There is no greater economic indicator than enrollment numbers in early care and education centers. Accordingly, as FTEs (full-time equivalents) move up or down, the need for staff fluctuates as well. What does not change, however, is the absolute need for quality staff, regardless of economic conditions. The greatest challenge in early care and…

Having been personally involved in several examinations of productivity in various sub-disciplines of psychology, I read with great interest the articles in this special issue. I commend the authors for engaging in this activity, as I feel that a field benefits from occasional self-examinations. In this commentary, I caution against placing too…

As a topic of study, disability is not new at institutions of higher education. Psychological and intellectual disabilities have been of interest in psychiatry and psychology at least since the late 1800s and early 1900s. The post-World War II era, in particular, witnessed the rapid expansion of academic programs in special education, vocational…

This research examines national data on the status of the minority teacher shortage--the low proportion of minority teachers in comparison to the increasing numbers of students of color in schools. The authors show that efforts over recent decades to recruit more minority teachers, and place them in disadvantaged schools, have been very…

Scholarly writing on college sports gets better as the problems of college sports get worse. This does not mean that the authors are causing the problems. Rather, the excesses and ills of college sports, past and present, provide such fertile data that historians of higher education enjoy a perverse embarrassment of research riches. This maxim is…

Despite a recent economic downturn, there is considerable political and industry pressure to retain or even increase the number of scientists in the UK and other developed countries. Claims are made that the supply of scientists (including engineers and mathematicians) is crucial to the economy and the health of the nation, and a large number of…

The advent of the Internet has significantly changed how organizations interact with their customers and constituents in the areas of marketing, information sharing, and engagement processes. College and university websites have become major communication venues for prospective students to learn about schools of interest to them. Catholic colleges…

This study involved a meta-analysis of 10 cases of inquiry-based learning (IBL) in undergraduate education to determine the factors which both enable and constrain its use. The enabling factors were found to include: teacher attributes--being student-centred, reflective but rebellious; course design attributes--questions stimulating learning,…

The paper presents a new approach for a bachelor-level curriculum structure in engineering. The approach is called DAS formalism according to its three phases: description, analysis and synthesis. Although developed specifically for process and environmental engineering, DAS formalism has a generic nature and it could also be used in other…