Community college students are being forced to delay future educational goals, due to the lack of financial support. Grants, student loans and financial aid support from government sources are in short supply. While past resources from state legislative bodies are being restricted and have been reduced to historic levels; educational…

Several hundred teachers and thousands of students are benefiting from professional development projects that operate all over California under the auspices of the California Postsecondary Education Commission. The Improving Teacher Quality State Grants Program provides federal funds from the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 to universities that…

The Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) was founded in 1994 to provide a meeting ground and support organization for individual social workers who engage in research. Over its first 14 years, SSWR has grown from a modest-sized organization that hosted an initial conference to a large and influential force that sponsors a wildly successful…

Research administrative supports must parallel and reinforce faculty initiatives in research grant procurement. This article features several types of developments that draw on presentations at the National Association of Deans and Directors of Schools of Social Work meetings. Key changes in social work programs are addressed, including the…

The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor is offering a development internship program that is designed to give students real-world experience working in development jobs and the chance to meet major donors and network with alumni. Its goals are lofty: to create a pipeline of young people for the development profession; diversify the fund-raising…

A levy/grant system exists in the UK construction industry to provide financial support for companies undertaking training activities. With the current UK government skills policy, there is an emphasis on ensuring that training support provided to employers is aimed at enhancing companies' profitability. This paper explores the profitability of…

America's community colleges are a key link in the chain of upward mobility, and they need more support than they're getting. This is an obvious statement for many in the community-college world, but with the growing challenges facing the system that educates almost half of the nation's undergraduates, the author contends that there is need to…

The federal government's recent focus on making institutions prove their academic quality has left community colleges feeling vulnerable, uncertain about how to demonstrate their value to students and worried about losing crucial taxpayer support as their enrollments rise in a sagging economy. This article reports that community-college leaders…

The period between 1965 and 1975 encompasses important events associated with the peak of the youth movement in the 1960s and its demise in the 1970s. The period was an "age of complexity" according to Daniel Yankelovich, a social scientist hired by John D. Rockefeller 3rd's Youth Task Force to study the wave of protests that Rockefeller felt…

Research and policy scholars have suggested that recent welfare caseload reductions have coincided with welfare reform efforts; however, few studies have incorporated the impacts of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) expansions in the 1990s. Using annual state-level administrative data, the author estimated the effects of the fully phased-in…

One may be surprised to learn that the author's institution, a small state college in Massachusetts, has a significant alumni population in and around Los Angeles. In fact, while they do not have an alumni chapter in Boston, they do have one in Los Angeles. The reason is that one of their most popular majors is communications media. They pump out…

This study sought to ascertain the specific motivations behind doctoral alumni giving. Most U.S. colleges and universities depend on alumni giving to supplement revenues from tuition and governmental support; however, relatively little alumni giving is generated from PhD graduates. The result is untapped revenue for doctoral-granting institutions.…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) From Gathering Storm to Category 5: Five Years After "Rising Above the Gathering Storm", U.S. Competitive…

As part of its mandate from Congress, the National Science Board oversees the collection of a very broad set of quantitative information about U.S. science, engineering and technology, and every 2 years publishes the data and trends in its "Science and Engineering Indicators" ("Indicators") report. On occasion, the data reveal trends that raise…

The "2009 GED[R] Testing Program Statistical Report" is the 52nd annual report in the program's 68-year history of providing a second opportunity for adults without a high school credential to earn their jurisdiction's GED credential. The report provides candidate demographic and GED Test performance statistics as well as historical…