The present condition of rural education in the western region of China is not optimistic. Existing problems include lacking education investment, poor school-running conditions, simplified running pattern and laggard concept of education. The countermeasures are: firstly, governments at all level especially the center one should increase input to…

Developmental assets are a research-based list of the essential building blocks of healthy youth development and comprise the relationships, experiences, and values that youth need to grow up caring, confident, and responsible. In November, 2001, Assets for Colorado Youth (ACY) convened a group of educators, students, and family advocates from the…

Partners in Quality is a research and development project sponsored by the Canadian Child Care Federation and its affiliates to explore how child care providers, parents, and other partners can work together to support and improve quality in child care. This booklet, in both English and French, supplements a series to support child care providers…

Increasingly, third parties are working with schools and providing a coach (a skilled educator external to a school) who helps to facilitate reform. This paper explores some of the complexities of coaching by presenting a case study of a coach in her first year of facilitating math and science reform in a pseudonymous middle school in a Boston…

The existing housing crisis for Philadelphia's low income families has been exacerbated by a decrease in the real income of these families over the past 10 years, a shortage of affordable housing during the same period, and the deterioration of much of the existing housing stock. "Watching Out for Children in Changing Times," a joint…

At the request of students and the Board of Trustees, the Connecticut Community Colleges began a system to develop a common course number system. The reasons for creating a common course number system include: (1) it simplifies comparisons between colleges in the system; (2) it facilitates course comparisons, easing the transcript evaluation…

The development of a high quality system of early care and education requires the attention, investment, and action of several groups, including parents, business leaders and philanthropists, teachers, media, and policymakers. This report, produced by the Education Commission of the States (ECS) as part of its Early Learning: Improving Results for…

The final report of this federally supported 3-year direct research project describes products developed in the project's investigation of inclusive education of students with severe disabilities and models of collaboration in inclusive urban schools. Year 1 resulted in research on inclusive education in the context of school reform. During Year 2…

This report highlights initiatives and accomplishments of the National Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Resource Center on Cultural Competency and a related consortium of 12 states and the District of Columbia from October 1992 through September 1995. Following an introductory section, the first chapter focuses on the role of the National MCH…

This book addresses the contemporary realities of schools and teaching, focusing on both the constraints and possibilities embedded in practice. It uses the words and experiences of teachers and principals to show what growth and change look like from the inside, focusing on what change requires, how differences in context and personnel are…

The Index for Inclusion is a compilation of materials to support British schools in the process of inclusive school development. Part 1 introduces the Index, then identifies the following key concepts: inclusion, barriers to learning and participation, resources to support learning and participation, and support for diversity. Part 1 then…

A White Paper issued by the Labour government--under Prime Minister Tony Blair--in January 2003 outlines potentially sweeping changes in how British universities might be funded and regulated. These changes would build on three major paradigm shifts and experiments in system building in higher education in the United Kingdom since World War II:…

This book provides the background to the movement of lifelong learning and is a practical guide to focusing the needs and motivations of the individual learner. The guide recognizes that progress is made through the development of individual personal potential and examines the new roles of education, government, and business organizations, and of…

At the request of the U.S. House of Representatives, this study identified problems confronting child protective service (CPS) units, which affect the system's capacity to protect children from abuse and neglect. State and local responses to these problems, and opportunities for the federal government to assist in improving the system's capacity…

This paper addresses the need to create relationships and supports that offer people with substantial disabilities the assistance they require to increase effective control of their lives ("power sharing"). The paper is based on experience and research in North American and British services to people with intellectual disabilities, autism, and…