Presents strategies developed for a National Science Foundation grant to improve rural science education by helping rural teachers design an action plan for instructional improvement based on their ideals and goals coupled with a realistic assessment of their teaching situation including the strengths and weaknesses of the rural setting. (JHZ)

Eckerd College overcame its financial and enrollment problems through a comprehensive strategy involving creation of a multigenerational learning community, improvement of the overall college environment for education, generation of substantial revenues from new sources, and reduction of expenditures. (MSE)

Describes and praises ways in which the Holmes Group report, committed to redesigning the education of teachers, goes beyond prior movements to reform teacher education. Urges the active cooperation of universities, granting agencies, politicians, faculties, teachers, and others in supporting and accomplishing the required changes. (IW)

Presents findings from studies that provide guidelines to policymakers and administrators on a range of issues related to school improvement. The first set of issues deals with deciding upon the nature of the desired changes. The second set deals with planning how to proceed. One hundred twenty-eight footnotes are appended. (IW)

Reviews the rapidly expanding literature on the federal government's involvement in elementary and secondary education, covering research syntheses published in the early 1980's and subsequent unanthologized empirical research and normative commentaries. Identifies trends and themes that surface from this literature, encompassing both empirical…

Although past educational planning has been most concerned with matching figures, in the future it may be more concerned with the creation of dynamic imbalances leading to new, constructive developments related to developments in the economy, struggle for equality, changes in power structures, and advancing technology. (MSE)

A unit of study--"Attitudes and the Disabled: A Values Education Approach"--developed to help Canadian students develop positive attitudes toward the disabled is described and evaluated. Fourth, fifth, and sixth graders who studies the unit developed significantly more positive attitudes than other students. (RM)

For Canada to succeed, all Canadians must have the opportunity to develop and use their skills and knowledge to the fullest. So said the government of Prime Minister Paul Martin in the Speech from the Throne that opened the 37th Parliament of Canada in February 2004: "Investing in people will be Canada's most important economic…

Thirty to forty years ago educators had at most the challenge of tape recorders and players and transistor radios to confront as electronic distractions in the classroom. Then pagers were introduced and became associated with drug trafficking and gang activity. Not long after, the first cellular phones were introduced and, when they became…

Career and technical education (CTE) in Pennsylvania faces a dual challenge. CTE programs must prepare students for careers in the 21st century and the new knowledge economy. Simultaneously, CTE must meet or exceed academic expectations and standards required of all students. This report summarizes the findings and recommendations of Jobs for…

The optimum situation for a school system is one in which bureaucratic influences and practices support classroom learning. The study reported in this policy brief examines a transformation toward this state of affairs in the country's eighth largest school district, the 140,000-student San Diego City Schools. An unusual leadership arrangement…

This report contains the results of a telephone survey of 602 likely Arizona voters on various measures to enhance school choice in Arizona. This research was conducted by Arizona Opinion of Tucson for The Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation of Indianapolis. All fieldwork was conducted on March 23-26, and 28-29, 2005 by DataCall Inc. of…

This paper describes and analyzes the Donors' Education Collaborative's (DEC) initiative to create sustainable systemic reform of New York City public education through projects that combined policy change strategies with efforts to develop permanent, broad-based constituencies advocating for and monitoring such reform. Based largely on field…

In six policy areas, states can better equip rural community colleges to serve their communities. In the area of economic and community development, states can use rural community colleges to promote community development efforts and service learning and to provide small business assistance and entrepreneurship education. States can improve access…

In 1993, New York City tried a different way of changing failing schools. A large failing high school was closed, and in its place were created four small high schools, a small elementary school, an infant and toddler program, a day care center for children of adolescent parents, and a medical clinic. Over a period of 3 or 4 years the building was…