Many states, accrediting agencies, and the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium have policies and standards mandating strategic planning for public schools. Planning in schools has become synonymous with strategic planning. However, alternative approaches to change exist that offer more effective solutions to school improvement. School…

There continues to be a need for providing teachers of young gifted learners with best-practice approaches for the development of curriculum in gifted education programs. Too often, early childhood gifted programs have focused on academic acceleration, and neglect to consider developmentally appropriate approaches to designing curriculum and…

This paper examines sustainable development within the context of issues arising from the UN's declaration of a Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), 2005-2014. Africa's mode of response to the ESD challenge could be gleaned from the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). Nigeria already has a National Conservation…

Preparation for entry into the information professions has always been through a combination of academic study and practical training. Broadly speaking there is probably general agreement about the knowledge and understanding which the new entrant to the profession needs to acquire. There is less clarity regarding the skills which are required if…

This article contrasts two major attempts at educational reform with regard to literacy. Starting with a brief background to the introduction of the National Literacy Strategy, together with an analysis of research into effective literacy teaching, it presents qualitative research carried out in the form of a comparative study of the National…

Adult education and ICT (information and communication technology) are intrinsically linked and ICT infiltrates every part of our lives. As those who have grown up and been educated in the ICT age become more prominent in society those who were not find themselves with the distinct possibility of becoming second-class citizens if not so already.…

Services for families caring for a child with a learning disability are changing to become more family-centred, focusing not only on the child's needs but on those of the whole family. An evaluation of a newly developed Families Project in one Health and Social Service Trust area in Northern Ireland aimed to identify the impact on parents and ways…

This collection of best practices shares how 18 higher education institutions across the country have successfully evaluated and redesigned their student financial services programs to improve services to students and their parents and find cost savings for the institution. This volume illustrates how other institutions have successfully tackled…

The authors detail technology-based active literacy strategies that they employed with preservice teachers to enhance their skill and comfort level in providing appropriate technology-supported literacy instruction to future students. They examine four theoretical and pragmatic threads to include in course design: active learning, open-ended…

This report looks at the experience of those young people who broaden their learning and develop their essential skills by undertaking school-college partnership programmes. Its primary aim is to identify what makes these programmes successful for young people and what needs to be done better. It is intended to help schools, colleges, and local…

Teaching children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) can be the most challenging to preschool teachers because of the complexity of this brain disorder. A child s life is affected, whether its communication and language, social and play skills, activities of daily living, self-regulation behaviors, and sensory impairments. Therefore, a teacher…

Penn State York has a history of collaboration with the York community. The campus became involved in two university-community collaborative efforts to identify and take action to resolve living and learning needs of children and teachers in York County. This article presents stories of two initiatives, and the lessons that emerged from reflection…

Is tutoring online more than just email? Two yearlong studies explored tutoring online in two different modes. One, from Atlantic Community College in New Jersey, looked at asynchronous (not real time) tutoring online using a discussion board. The other, at Pima Community College in Arizona, used synchronous (real time) online software. The…

Australia has a long history of what has been pilloried as "cultural cringe", and of bemoaning its isolation from "overseas" developments. In recent years, the valuing of ideas and practices from elsewhere has been transformed under the rubric of "world best practice" within a global economy and culture, both in…

Throughout the United States today schools and community colleges are putting greater emphasis than ever before upon adult education. Obvious reasons for this include the manpower demands of national defense, the spreading desire for educational upgrading, and the impact of technological change upon the daily lives of millions of workers. For each…